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HENRY A. ROWLAND. 

AUTHOR OF A WORK " ON THE COMMON MAXIMS OF INFIDELITY," AND 
OF *' THE PATH OF LIFE." 



" And the light shineth in darknecs, 
And the darkness comprehended it not." 
John i., 5. 






NEW YOEK:^--^^ 

M. W. BODD, PUBLISHER AND BOOKSELLER, 

Brick Church Chapel. 




t> 



7.1 



i^'^. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852, by 

M. W. DODD, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of 

New York. 



E, O. JBNKINS, PEINTKE, AND SXKKEOTYFER. 

114 Nassau Street. 



rHatnrji %tm^xl$. 



In a small work entitled '' The Path of Life/' re- 
cently issued from the press, I have endeavored to 
give an elucidation of those great points of reUgious 
belief and practice which are essential to salvation. 
To that work the rehgious inquirer is respectfully 
commended, as containing truth adapted to lead him 
to the Saviour. 

But it was not appropriate, in a work of that na- 
ture, to discuss the false principles which lead many 
of our fellow-men to hve in the neglect of the Gospel, 
nor could I then explore the Dark Alley where they 
dwell. On this account, I have given to this discus- 
sion a separate volume. 



iv PREFATORY REMARKS. 

Others have, with ourselves, a common interest in 
the plan of mercy revealed in the Grospel ; and in our 
efiforts to enhghten them, we ought ever to enlist 
their reason and conscience on the side of truth. The 
nature of that wrong state of heart which constitutes 
depravity, and of those Gospel truths designed to 
overcome and remove it, is susceptible of a clear and 
intelligible explanation. There are reasons lying back 
in the springs of human action and in the thoughts 
and emotions of the mind, for the existence of that 
moral state in man known as depravity, which ought 
to be generally understood. And there are reasons 
back of those Gospel truths which are designed to 
reach and change the heart, laying a foundation in the 
nature of things for the reclaimhag influence of the 
Gospel, which ought not to pass unnoticed. It is as 
proper to inquire into the reasons of the facts which 
exist in rehgion, as of those which exist in nature; 
and these, when spread before the mind, go far to- 
ward producing conviction. ^Vn abihty suitable to 



PEEFATORY REjVIAIIKS. V 

discriminate these reasons, is essential to the clear 
exposition of truth. The mind needs to be informed, 
not subjected merely to authority. 

Truth is wielded by the Holy Spirit for the conver- 
sion of the soul to God ; and it is to the substance of 
truth rather than to its great Author, that the atten- 
tion is here directed. An illustration of Gospel truth 
is but a vindication of that wisdom which has given 
it to the world. A work which should treat of the 
nature of the Gospel, and meet the false reasonings 
and the excuses of those who live in the neglect of 
this precious gift of heaven, exposing, at the same 
time, the source of that obscurity which rests upon 
the unconverted mind, seemed to me desirable, and 
fitted to answer a wise and useful purpose. 

To those who are conscious of Hvingin this neglect, 
or who have friends thus, this book is commended, as 
a suitable antidote to the many dangerous errors 
which are constantly instilKng poison into the mind. 



vi PEEFATORY REMARKS. 

It assumes its present form, from a conversation had 
with an esteemed friend, in which the chief points of 
discussion here noticed were introduced; not that 
the exact words of this conversation are given, but 
its substantial arguments. Such as it is, I commend 
it to the public, anxious only that it may be useful. 

Honesdale, Pa., September 21, 1852. 



CONTEJNITS. 



The dark alley, - - - - 1 

CHAPTER I. 

Man naturally in the dark as to his own 
character, - - - - 14 

CHAPTER II 

As TO THE GOVERNING MOTIVE OF HIS CONDUCT IN 

LIFE, - - - - - 27 

CHAPTER III. 

As TO THE MORAL ESTIMATE PROPER TO BE MADE 

OF HIMSELF, - - - - 39 

CHAPTER IV. 

As TO THE GROUND OF HIS ACCEPTANCE WITH THE 

DIVINE BEING, - - - 43 

CHAPTER V. 

As TO THE EFFICIENCY OF THE DIVINE GOODNESS AS 

THE MEANS OF SECURING HIS HAPPINESS, - 54 

CHAPTER VI. 

As TO THE CHIEF OBJECT FOR WHICH HE SHOULD 
LIVE, AND THE HAPPINESS ATTAINED BY LIVING 
TO THIS OBJECT, - - . - 65 



VIU CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER yil. 

As TO THE LIGHT RADIATED FROM THE GOSPEL - 80 

CHAPTER VIII. 

As TO THE NATURE OF THE GOSPEL AS UNFOLDING 

THE GREAT PRINCIPLES OF RECOVERING GRACE 88 

CHAPTER IX. 

As TO THE WAY IN WHICH THE GOSPEL OPERATES TO 
REMOVE THE MORAL BLINDNESS AND EFFECT 
THE SPIRITUAL RECOVERY OF MAN, - 119 

CHAPTER X. 

Natural blindness as to spiritual things, indi- 
cative OF one's spiritual state, - - 139 

CHAPTER XI. 
The state of mind which leads one to neglect 
the gospel, and to frame excuses for so 

DOING, - - - _ - 144 

CHAPTER XII. 
Truth illustrated by example, - . I54 

CHAPTER XIII. 
The offered friendship of christ, the influen- 
tial motive to inspire a return to god, - 165 

CHAPTER Xiy. 
The urgency of the gospel call, - - 172 



LIGHT IN A DARK ALLEY. 



INTEODUCTOEY. 

The security felt by many who live in 
the neglect of the Grospel, excites my won- 
der. How such darkness can shroud their 
minds as to the nature of true religion, and 
such indifference can be felt respecting it, I 
could never imagine, till led to inquire into 
the source of this obscurity, and into the 
causes of this neglect. 

The Gospel is addressed to man as a wan- 
derer from Grod, to point out to him the na- 
ture of his moral ruin and the method of his 
recovery. To restore him to the holiness 
and happiness lost through sin, is its great 
end and aim ; and that it may become the 
eflicient means of this restoration, it must 



10 LIGHT IN A DARK ALLEY. 

be compreliended and obeyed. But man 
often fails of this, througli ignorance of his 
own moral state. He is blind as to the 
remedy, because ignorant of the disease. 
Intelligent men, estimable in their charac- 
ters, pleasant companions, and agreeable 
friends, are not unfrequently misled as to 
the sj'stem of grace, by a profound igno- 
rance of their own hearts. It is useless to 
unfold to them the truths of spiritual re- 
ligion, while in this state, for they have no 
ability to comprehend them. They need to 
know themselves before they can understand 
the nature of the GosjdcI. 

It would seem as if a multitude of our 
fellow- men were living in some dark alley, 
side by side, where the light of the Gos- 
pel never shines, so much alike do they 
think, feel, and act on the subject of their 
relations to God. They constitute a neighbor- 
hood by themselves, having opinions pecu- 
liarl}^ their own, and yet all agreeing in their . 
practical neglect of religion. Expecting hap- 
piness hereafter, they build their hopes of 
heaven on very different foundations. Hope, 



THE DARK ALLEY. 11 

in many instances, is only a dim and illusive 
vision of some object wliicli they desire, rather 
than an expectation based on truth ; and is 
often enshrouded in darkness. Erroneous 
views of their moral state by nature fill their 
minds with false conceptions of the whole 
Gospel system. 

To you who are conscious of treating the 
Gospel with neglect, considerations of infinite 
moment are here addressed, to influence you 
to escape from your present dangerous posi- 
tion, into the way of life. To the truths here 
set before you, your earnest attention is so- 
licited, as the effectual means to acquaint you 
with the dangers to which you are exposed, 
and to guide you safe to the end of your 
journey. It is not hastily turning over these 
leaves which will secure to you the benefit 
to be derived from this volume. It requires 
your serious and prayerful study. The 
greatest difficulty with which truth is obliged 
to contend in one who neglects religion, is to 
fix the attention long enough to make its 
appropriate impression on his mind. If you 
merely glance at truth which ought to com- 



12 LIGHT IN" A DARK ALLEY. 

mand your most earnest attention, or if you 
cast aside the volume which contains it, sat- 
isfied with the fact that it treats of religion, 
in which you feel no interest, how can you 
meet the responsibilities which rest on you, 
or excuse yourself for this neglect? 

If the subject of your relations to God, 
and of the responsibilities involved in them, 
is distasteful to you, is there not some sinful 
cause of this state of feeling, existing in 
yourself? May not the want of interest 
in religion indicate a wrong moral state, 
which requires special and immediate atten- 
tion ? Will you not inquire into this sub- 
ject, and satisfy yourself of the rectitude of 
your course, if you can become thus satisfied? 
Do not continue to live thoughtless of your 
obligations to God as they are set forth in 
the Gospel, and in the neglect of this plan 
of mercy so indispensable to salvation. Come, 
and let us proceed, arm in arm, to survey the 
dark alley wbere you dwell, and then en- 
deavor to find the path which leads from it 
to the celestial city. There are mistakes in 
religion to which you are constantly liable, 



THE DARK ALLEY. 13 

and there is a false hope ; and fatal to your 
happiness will it be to trust in the delusions 
of error, or indulge such a hope. There is 
truth, eternal, blessed truth, which the Gos- 
pel unfolds to view ; and happy will you be 
if you receive it, and are guided by it through 
the dangers and trials of life, safe to heaven. 



MAN NATURALLY IN THE DARK AS TO HIS OWN 
CHARACTER. 

There was an old man with hoary locks, 
more than seventy years of age, who became 
ill of a lingering disease, of which he died. 
On his death-bed, he sent for an evangelical 
clergyman, whom he had heard preach at a 
funeral. His mind was ill at ease. He knew 
that he was descending into the vale of 
death, and wished comfort. I think I see 
this venerable father, as he lay on his bed, 
surrounded by his weeping family. 

My aged friend, said the minister, how do 
you feel ? 

He replied, I am very ill ; and have sent 
for you to have some conversation with 
you before I depart. 

The clergyman said, Yes, you are ill, and 



NATUKAL OHAEACTER. 15 

may not be permitted long to remain with 
us ; and on what, may I inquire, is your 
hope of happiness after death founded ? 

He rephed, I have, for forty years, been 
a Universalist, and have indulged a belief 
that all mankind will finally be saved. 

And do you depend upon this belief, ask- 
ed the clergyman ? 

Yes, he replied, I trust in the Divine 
goodness, and that having received my be- 
ing at the hand of God, he will not leave me 
to become miserable when I die. 
• But, said the clergyman, this will never 
do, unless you comply with the conditions 
of life revealed in the Gospel, which are, re- 
pentance toward God, and faith in the Lord 
Jesus Christ. 

But, said the dying man, I have always 
aimed to do right toward my fellow-creatures, 
and have never injured them in thought, 
word, or deed. 

I fear, said the clergyman, that you know 
very little of the state of your own heart. 
While trusting in your morality toward 
men, you may have been living in the 



16 LIGHT IN A DARK ALLEY. 

neglect of Grod, and of the spiritual duties 
of his religion, and never, in one instance, 
acted toward him from a motive of true obe- 
dience. I would not risk my soul on what 
you are, for ten thousand worlds. Do you 
never have doubts of the sure foundation of 
your hope ? 

The old man turned his head aside and 
w^ept. Yes, he said, I fear I know not what. 
I fear that all may not be right. I do not 
know why I have these fears ; but some- 
thing seems to whisper to me that I may 
be mistaken. 

But, said the clergyman, you know the 
Saviour's promises to those who believe in 
him? 

Yes, he said ; and I have seen Christians die 
calm, and even happy. I wonder how it is 
that they feel as they do, and that I have 
such gloomy forebodings, and such a sinking 
of heart, in view of death ; and the old man 
again turned in his bed and wept. 

The clergyman then pointed him to the 
Lamb of God, who was slaiu for sinners ; 
but the djdng man appeared perplexed, and 



NATURAL CHARACTER. I'T 

his mind seemed agitated with conflicting 
emotions. He was evidently afraid to aban- 
don his old opinion, lest he should not find 
the pardoning mercy of which he felt the 
need, and should fall between the two, and 
be lost ; and he continually repeated, as if 
balancing the subject in his thoughts — I don't 
know — I don't know. 

After prayer, offered at his request, the 
clergyman took his leave; and, not many 
hours after, the spirit of this father was 
ushered into the presence of the Eternal 
Judge. Poor man ! my heart bleeds for 
you, when I remember your trembling, fear- 
ful end. 

One who had for years lived in the belief 
of a similar error, said, that amid his ef- 
forts to confirm himself in his belief, he 
could never feel at ease. He could ex- 
plain away many of the texts of Scripture 
which speak of future punishment, but 
could never satisfactorily dispose of that 
little word ^* repent." He was aware that he 
had never known by experience what it is to 
repent ; and sometimes, he knew not why, 
2* 



18 LIGHT IN A DARK ALLEY. 

that word would suddenly present itself, and 
would seem to ring in his ears, giving him 
no peace till he found it, as a repenting and 
believing sinner, at the feet of Christ. 

There is one for whom I feel a strong per- 
sonal friendship, who is blameless in his life, 
and the object of universal esteem, who lives 
in the neglect of the Gospel. He is led thus 
to treat it, through the confidence he feels, 
that one so eminently virtuous and up- 
right, as he esteems himself to be, cannot 
fail of heaven. Not that he is a Christian^ 
that he' keeps holy the Sabbath, maintains a 
life of prayer, or lives in the observance of 
the spiritual duties of religion; but he is 
blameless in his life, so far at least as it is 
developed to observation. 

During an interview with this friend, an 
opportunity occurred for a conversation on 
the subject of religion ; and I endeavored 
faithfully to improve it. I found him quite 
willing to converse, and ready to lead off the 
conversation into a discussion of the deep 
truths of spiritual religion ; but, aware of the 
inutility of such a course, I frankly com- 



NATUEAL CHARACTER. 19 

municated to him my opinion respecting 
it. . 

You would advance, I remarked, to a con- 
sideration of those great truths, which you 
cannot understand nor appreciate until you 
have acquired a view of that spiritual disease, 
for which the Gospel is a remedy. Let us 
rather begin with those things that are easy 
of comprehension, and have a natural pre- 
cedence. 

On inquiry, I found, as I had presumed, 
that he had no consistent and scriptural 
view of man in his natural state, as one who 
has apostatized from God, and is condemned 
by his righteous law. He appeared to think 
that man has only slid away, in some slight 
degree, from the path of duty, that he is still 
mainly good in heart, and that all he needs 
for the Divine acceptance is to cultivate this 
goodness, to preserve his moral integrity, 
and to live in peace with men. He seemed 
to be ignorant of the state of man by nature, 
as fallen and lost, that while in this state, 
he is destitute of moral goodness, and, as 
such, is condemned by the law, and exposed 



20 LIGHT IX A DAEK ALLEY. 

to everlastiDg misery; and I stated to my 
friend these points, as demanding his special 
notice. 

He received the statement with consid- 
erable astonishment, and asked, Do yon be- 
lieve in the doctrine of total depravity ? 

Let ns, I replied, first understand what 
total depravity is, lest you should attach 
some meaning to it which wonld convey to 
you a wrong impression, if I should answer 
your question directly. 

By total depravity it is not meant that 
man is as wicked as he can be, nor that he 
may not, in view of the world, possess a 
character that is strictly honest and benevo- 
lent. Some of the kindest and most exem- 
plary of men, in these respects, have dis- 
carded a belief in the Christian religion, and 
denied even the being of a God; and yet, 
have set a laudable example to the world of 
outward morality. If you think that by 
total depravity we mean any thing which 
involves a denial of this virtue in all but 
Christians, and which teaches that men, in 
their natural or unconverted state, are as 



NATUKAL CHAKACTER. 21 

wicked as they can be, you take a very im- 
proper view of it. 

We mean by total depravity, that men 
are, by nature, without love to God — are in 
his view destitute of moral goodness, and, 
as such, are under the condemnation of his 
law, and exposed to a just and everlasting 
punishment. His law demands that we 
love him with all our heart, soul, strength, 
and mind, and our neighbor as ourselves. 
But man fails of this obedience. He does 
not supremely love God, nor does he love 
him in any proper sense whatever. He is, 
therefore, in God's estimation, destitute of 
moral goodness. This destitution of moral 
goodness Ave call total depravity. It ever 
exists in combination with a disposition to 
turn from God, and to trample on his law. 
And this is our state by nature. 

Man was not originally thus, but came 
from the hand of his Creator holv. He 
loved God supremely, and confided in him 
as a fond and obedient child clings to a pa- 
rent. But he fell from this blissful state 
through the machinations of Satan, and his 



22 LIGHT IS A DARK ALLEY. 

love to God tlien ceased. He began to treat 
him as unkind, oppressive in his exactions, a 
tyrant, and not a friend. And in conse- 
quence of this apostasy the whole human 
race became morally degenerate. 

The thoughts and desires spontaneously 
rising in your mind, when contrasted with 
the requisitions of the divine law, will dis- 
cover to you that you are in a very different 
moral state from that of perfect holiness ; 
and when you search the sacred Scriptures 
on this point, you will find their testimonies 
to be against you. You will see that ^^ all 
have sinned and come short of the glory of 
God;" that "there is none righteous, no, 
not one ;" that " except a man be born again 
he cannot see the kingdom of God;" that 
"God now- commandeth all men every- 
where to repent;" that " death hath passed 
upon all men, for that all have sinned ;" that 
" Jesus Christ came into the world to save 
sinners;" and that "whosoever believeth 
not in him, is condemned already;" all of 
which texts show that the heart, in its nat- 
ural state, is ahenated from God, and that its 



NATURAL CHARACTER. 23 

recovery througli grace from this ruined 
state is necessary to salvation. 

I have no doubt of the fact that man is a 
sinful being, said my friend; but if the gen- 
eral purport of his life is right, and he does 
as well as he can, God will unquestionably 
overlook his minor infirmities, and not judge 
him severely on their account. ' 

You speak of the general purport of one's 
life, said I, as if that might be right while 
the motives governing its individual actions 
are sinful; and in this, you overlook the 
true position of man as a moral being under 
the divine government. If he truly loved 
God as did our first parents when holy, those 
infirmities and sins of which you speak could 
not exist. You admit that you do not love 
God perfectly; are you sure that you have 
an}^ love for him whatever ? 

Why yes, said my friend, but not as much 
as I ought. 

There is no doubt that this is your im- 
pression, I replied, but you certainly over- 
look the great facts illustrative of natural 
character, which show the state of the un- 



24 LIGHT IN A DARK ALLEY. 

renewed heart to be one of alienation and 
enmity toward God, instead of love. 

But I am not conscious, said my friend, of 
any sncli enmity in my heart. I have no 
special fondness for the dnties of spiritual 
religion, but yet I never supposed that there 
is any enmity in my heart toward my Ma- 
ker. Why should there be, when I behold 
around me the constant evidences of his 
goodness ? 

You may well say this, I replied; for 
when you look out upon your broad mead- 
ows, and view your fields, under the foster- 
ing care of a kind Providence, yielding their 
abundance; when you are conscious of the 
pulsations of health, and your buoyant feel- 
ings are interested and pleased in the things 
around you, you have the evidence before 
you of God's goodness, and it kindles in your 
heart a kind of love for him. And when 
vou read in the Bible that " the carnal mind 
is enmity against God," you think you know 
that this text is not apphcable to you, who 
love God some, you say, but not as much as 
you ought. 



NATURAL CHARACTER. 25 

But did you ever inquire into the nature 
of this supposed love, and ask yourself why 
you love God ? You sayj that it is because 
he is good to you ; that is, because he is 
the instrument of your happiness. And is 
this all ? Have you no love to him for his 
own intrinsic excellence, as a holy Being, who 
hates and punishes sin ? If not, yours is 
not true love. Him you do not love, but 
only the development of his kindness toward 
yourself You love the loaves and fishes 
which his bounty confers on you. It is lov- 
ing him only as the instrument of your own 
happiness ; and this is a selfish affection, and 
very different in its nature from the love 
which he commands. 

A man naturally loves what he esteems 
good to himself; nor is this a virtuous, but 
a selfish affection. He loves the friend who 
confers favors upon him, the horse that bears 
him on his journey, the wine that tickles his 
palate, the money that purchases his pleas- 
ures, the mistress to v,^hom he is devoted, 
and whatever administers to his personal gra- 
tification ; and this love is onlj^ selfish. He 
3 



26 LIGHT IIS" A DARK ALLEY. 

loves these things as the ministers of his 
pleasures. His love passes through all these 
objects, and fastens directly upon himself. 
He loves the world, and the good things it 
sets before him ; and loves them proportion- 
ably to their power to interest and please 
him. This love he feels toward God. It 
passes through God, as the instrument r)f 
good to him, and fastens upon himself. It is 
all the love to God which multitudes of our 
fellow-men ever experience ; and how does it 
differ from any other selfish affection ? How 
must God estimate that regard for him which 
sets up the creature as first in the affections, 
and him as subordinate ? Does it not con- 
flict with the chief element of true obedience, 
and the first precept of the divine law, 
^* Thou shalt have no other God before me?" 



AS TO THE GOVERNING MOTIVE OF HIS CONDUCT IN LITE. 

But do you think, said my friend, that 
every man, in his natural state, loves him- 
self supremely, and that he is governed by 
this affection ? 

I certainly do, was my reply. The natu- 
ral state of man since the great apostasy, is 
one in which he loves himself supremely in 
place of God. This fact is commonly over- 
looked by those who are not disposed to re- 
gard man as alienated from his Maker; 
and yet it is the foundation of his sinful 
character. 

It is a strange doctrine, said my friend, and 
its annunciation grates harshly upon my ears. 
I wish to know on what ground you are dis- 
posed to ascribe this selfishness to man, and 
how you regard it as the foundation of his 



28 LIGHT IN A DARK ALLEY. 

character. I cannot believe that the facts 
are as you represent. 

Do not misapprehend the proper use of 
terms, I replied, or think that selfish, in this 
connection, has relation to any other state 
of mind than that which respects God. A 
man may love himself supremely ; his af- 
fections may be wholly turned away from 
Grod, and he yet may treat with kindness a 
poor neighbor. 

But how do you show that the heart is 
by nature turned away from God, and that 
its affections supremely centre upon one's 
self? 

It is the testimony of Christ, I replied, 
that ''no man can serve two masters, for 
either he will hate the one and love the other, 
or else he will hold to the one and despise 
the other." "Ye cannot," said our Saviour, 
" serve God and mammon." By this he in- 
timated, that two objects morally opposite in 
their nature, cannot, at the same time, com- 
mand the supreme affection of the mind. 
Of the several objects of affection, which are 
of opposite moral qualities, one must be re- 



THE GOVEEJS-INa MOTIVE. 29 

garded as supreme, the others as subordi- 
nate. Man cannot love God supremely, and 
yet, at the same time, supremely love him- 
self ; for these moral affections are opposite 
and conflicting in their own nature, and can- 
not both reign in the heart at the same time. 

The command is, ^'Thou shalt love the 
Lord thy God with all thy heart ;" but it is 
evident from our experience and observa- 
tion, that men do not naturally conform 
themselves to this holy precept. They do 
not naturally love to think of God as a 
spiritual and holy being, nor to please him, 
but to think of themselves and please 
themselves ; nor do they naturally and in- 
sjtinctively shrink from disobeying those pre- 
cepts of the divine law which their fancied 
interest or happiness prompts them to disre- 
gard ; which they would do if they loved God 
with a supreme affection. 

The fact that they aim to please them- 
selves in preference to Jehovah, and are re- 
gardless of his law, and neglect it whenever 
it suits theii: convenience, shows that they 
love themselves more than they love him. 
3* 



30 LIGHT IN A DAEK ALLEY. 

It is natural to please those we love, and if 
we aim to please ourselves more than we do 
God, it is because we love ourselves more 
than we love him. Or, if it is said, that it is 
the world that is loved, I ask, why ? Is it 
not because it is the chief source of their 
pleasures ? They love the world and its va- 
ried objects of delight, as the instrument of 
their enjoyment. And here, their affection 
passes through the world, and fixes on 
themselves. The world is nothing to them 
any further than it possesses the power to 
give them enjoyment. It is their own en- 
joyment that they love, or, in other words, 
they love themselves supremely, and love 
the world only as instrumental to their hap- 
piness. If you will analyze the affections 
which reign in the unconverted mind, you 
will discover that they all cluster around 
this love of self, and that this is the govern- 
ing affection, and the motive of all disobe- 
dience. 

If this were not so, and if mankind were 
naturally governed by supreme, love to God, 
they would desire to please him. 



THE GOYER^^ING MOTIVE. 31 

Could they possess this desire, and yet live 
as they do in habitual disobedience to the 
precepts of his holy law, and of his Gospel ? 
Could they dislike the spiritual duties of re- 
ligion, and cast off fear and restrain prayer, 
if they supremely loved God ? If the motive 
leading them to abstain from open vice, 
were love to God, would not this same mo- 
tive prompt them in all respects to conform 
themselves to his wishes, to love what he 
loves, and hate what he hates ? It is clear, 
therefore, that love supreme toward God 
does not naturally reign in the heart of apos- 
tate man, else it would certainly manifest 
itself in securing in him a life of holy 
obedience. But now " God commandeth 
all men everywhere to repent ;" and this 
command is based on the fact, that all men 
are naturally sinners, and not under the 
guiding and controlling influence of su- 
preme love to God. What need would 
there be of repentance, or of salvation, if this 
were not the state of man by nature ? They 
need to repent, because they are naturally 
disobedient ; they need to be saved, because 



32 LIGHT IN A DARK ALLEY. 

ttiey are lost ; tlieir hearts need to be cliang- 
ed, because they are alienated from God ; 
they need to give themselves up to him in 
true submission, because they now withhold 
themselves from him, and aim only to please 
themselves. 

Here my friend introduced the case of 
one who plunged into the water from the 
deck of a steamboat, and saved the life of a 
child. It is true, he said, that the man was 
swearing a little, previously, for he was very 
profane ; but was there not something good in 
that man's heart over and above what you 
represent? Could he have loved himself 
supremely, and yet have done an act so be- 
nevolent ? 

You must admit, I replied, that pro- 
faning the name of God is inconsistent 
with loving him supremely, and that su- 
preme love to God did not reign in his heart, 
for he was in the act of cursing his Maker, 
when he plunged in to save the child. What, 
then, you are ready to ask, led him to dis- 
play this heroic conduct, if it was not love 
to God ? I reply, that it was an instinctive 



THE GOVERNING MOTIVE. 33 

impulse, such as that which leads one to care 
for his own preservation. There was an 
appeal of the weak and suffering to the strong, 
which it required only a fellow-feeling of man 
for man to regard. Even a dog will plunge in- 
to the water to save a helpless child. An athe- 
ist would as cheerfully have responded to such 
an appeal, as the Christian. Nor is Satan 
himself devoid of such natural sympathy, 
as to leave one of his fellows in difficalty, 
when he can, by a little timely aid, rescue 
him from danger. And if such heroic con- 
duct may flow from other principles of action 
than love to God, it is not necessarily evi- 
dence of the existence of this love. 

The natural sympathy between man and 
man, as members of the human family, is 
such as exists between the subjects of a re- 
volted province, who may feel a kindness 
toward each other, even when in conflict 
with the rightful authority, to which they 
owe allegiance. There is a feeling of mu- 
tual dependence which would lead one from 
motives, wholly selfish even, to assist others, 
as he would expect like of&ces of kindness 



34 LIGHT IN A DAEK ALLEY. 

from them. One who loves himself su- 
premely and turns away from God in the 
neglect of duty toward him, may yet so love 
his race, as one to which he himself and his 
family belong, as to act the part of a hero 
in defence of the injured, or to save the 
drowning, while utterly regardless of his 
Creator. Other motives than that of holy 
love may influence him, and which are not 
inconsistent with the supreme love of self. 

But what are we to think, said my friend, 
of that maternal tenderness which a parent 
displays to her offspring? Is there not some- 
thing morally good here manifested ? 

There maj^ be goodness of a certain kind, 
I replied, in j^ielding to the natural impulses 
of affection toward our offspring; but how 
does this show the existence of love to God? 
The impulse of affection, in such a case, is of 
no more moral virtue in his sight, than 
the desire of food when one is hungry, or of 
society when one is solitary ; for it is evident 
that a mother may care for her child with- 
out ever thinking of God. Brutes, in this 
respect, are as kind to their offspring as the 



THE GOVERNING MOTIVE. 35 

human species are to theirs. The heathen, 
who know nothing of God, and the atheist, 
who denies his existence, may be equally 
kind and tender toward their oflfspring. Our 
natural sympathies do not depend on the 
manner in which we treat God, but exist 
alike in every human bosom. 

If depravity were what many think the 
term implies, that men are as wicked as 
they can be, it would be in point to adduce 
the case of a mother who treats her child 
kindly, when she might treat it otherwise, to 
show that this depravity does not exist. But 
you perceive, that this is not the kind of de- 
pravity which the Bible teaches ; for that is 
not inconsistent with the flow of our natural 
sympathies, or our being governed by the 
impulses of natural affection in the kind treat- 
ment of our offspring. All the depravity 
for which we contend is that which dis- 
places God from the heart, sets up self in 
his place, and leads man naturally to love 
himself supremely. 

But, said my friend, here is one who 
makes no pretension to religion, and yet 



36 LIGHT I:N' a dark ALLEY. 

clieerfully sustains by his contributions ^he 
worshijD of God in bis sanctuary. 

He also enjoys the benefits of this sacred 
institution, was my reply; and in tbe appro- 
bation of bis own conscience, and of bis fel- 
low-men, be bas bis reward ; and it is suffi- 
cient to influence a mind wbich is under tbe 
supreme control of selfisb affection. 

But be also preserves an unblemisbed re- 
putation, said my friend. 

So may tbe atbeist, was my reply. An 
atbeist bas no love to God, and yet be may 
be unblemisbed in character, wbile open 
and unrelenting in tbe avowal of bis athe- 
istical belief It is presumed, that if the 
natural mind were alienated from God and 
in conflict with him, this enmity would con- 
stantly develop itself by acts of spiteful 
malice done toward him. But this presump- 
tion is wholly groundless. So long as one 
feels that God is good to him, he is sensible 
of no inimical feebng ever rising toward him 
in his mind. But it is very different when 
be comes to feel himself to be in God's hands, 
and that he cannot break away from bis au- 



THE GOVERXI]S"a MOTIVE. 37 

tboritj, but must yield obedience to him, or 
suffer the infliction of his terrible wrath. 
When conscience alarms him, and he begins 
to reflect on his exposure to the divine anger 
on account of his sins, and that he must re- 
pent or be lost, then it is that his heart rises 
against God, and he wishes there were no 
such being in the universe. He would, if it 
were in his power, hurl him from his throne. 
Then it is that he finds by his experience 
the truth of the declaration, that the *• carnal 
mind is enmity against Grod." 

In the supreme love of self, which is the 
governing affection of the natural heart, is 
laid the elements of this enmity. God de- 
mands the love of man ; man claims a right 
of directing his affection where he chooses ; 
and when the day of trial shall come, when 
it shall be seen who will triumph in this con- 
flict, it is evident what must be the feeling 
of man. Pure and unmitigated enmity to- 
ward Jehovah is the natural result of loving 
one's self supremely. Ignorance of the na- 
ture of this selfish principle, and of its su- 
preme control in the heart of the unconverted 
sinner, leads mankind to take up with many 



38 LIGHT IN A DARK ALLEY. 

notions, and to trust in many errors, which 
they would not credit for a moment if they 
had right views as to the elements of natural 
character. 

If you will weigh these facts and reason- 
ings, you may discover what you have never 
yet seen, that the heart naturally turns away 
from God in disobedience to him, and in 
neglect of the Gospel, and resorts to the de- 
lusions of error, because man naturally loves 
himself supremely, and, as supremely devoted 
to himself, is inimical toward God ; and this 
enmity will certainly be developed when-, 
ever circumstances occur which are adapted 
to call it forth. With this view of truth, the 
sacred Scriptures fully accord. They uni- 
formly represent mankind as in a fallen and 
lost state, alienated from God, and needing 
to be reconciled ; they teach that Jesus Christ 
came into the world to save sinners, "to 
seek and to save them that are lost;" and 
that man must repent, that his heart must 
be changed, that he must be reconciled, that 
he must yield himself up to God through 
faith in the Eedeemer, or he cannot enter 
into his kingdom. 



AS TO THE MORAL ESTIMATE PROPER TO BE MADE OF 
HIMSELF. 

You speak, said my friend, as if there 
were nothing good in man. If he love him- 
self supremely, and this love is the govern- 
ing motive of his conduct, then it would 
seem that he does nothing out of love to his 
Maker, and, consequently, nothing which he 
can approve. Am I right in my conjecture? 

I think you will not question the truth of 
the position, was my reply, if you reflect 
that the governing affection of the mind ex- 
tends its influence down to all those acts 
which are subordinate and controls their 
character. If love to God were occasionally 
to come in, to control some of the acts of one 
who loves himself supremely, this love, by 
the terms of the supposition, must be only 



40 LIGHT IN A DARK ALLEY. 

subordinate to the love of self. . The love of 
Grod in a mind where the love of self su- 
premely reigns, is of course subordinate to 
the reigning affection. It cannot therefore 
be true love to God, for this is necessarily 
supreme. 

What kind of love must that be which 
treats him only as inferior to the creature ; 
which loves his benefits, but hates his excel- 
lence; which loves him only as the instru- 
ment of happiness, but hates that holiness 
which is his glory ? 

If you scrutinize the motives of your 
actions, you will detect the fact that man 
naturally bestows his chief regards upon 
himself. His thoughts and desires are all 
spontaneously directed to the promotion of 
his own worldly pleasures. He consults 
these first. The character which he assumes, 
and the morality which he practises, are but 
the natural result of what he esteems as 
most conducive to his own hajDpiness. He 
does not avoid open sin because God has 
prohibited it, so much as because it is dis- 
reputable. His practice is moulded more by 



A FALSE ESTIMATE. 41 

the laws and customs of society, than by the 
law of God. The nnhappiness to which the 
operations of his conscience give rise, springs 
from the disrepute into which sin brings 
him, rather than from its being offensive to 
the pure and holy Jehovah. If he is strictly 
honest and scorns a base action, if he is kind 
and gives expansion to his benevolence in 
acts of mercy, yet these are the offspring of 
that principle which leads him to exalt him- 
self rather than God. And that they are the 
offspring of such a principle is evident from 
the consideration that, if love to God prompt- 
ed these virtues, that love would also exert 
a moulding influence on the character, in 
other respects. One who is just in his deal- 
ings out of love for God, will also be inspired 
by this love to other acts of obedience in 
keeping with this principle. It would lead 
one to observe the holy Sabbath, to avoid 
the profenation of his Maker's name, to live 
devoted to Jehovah, and to be ever found 
in the observance of all the duties which he 
has commanded. It would not permit him 
to content himself with an outward obedience 



42 LIGHT IX A DARK ALLEF. 

only, and that As^liicli affects the reputation, 
but would impel him to the performance of 
all the duties, secret and open, which the 
divine law enjoins. 

But when we discover the profane swearer, 
the Sabbath-breaker, the sensual, and those 
who live in the neglect of the duties of his 
religion, to be as strict in that moral integ- 
rity which prevails among business men, as 
any other class of persons, it shows that love 
to Grod is not necessarily the motive of this 
integrity, for it exists in many who evidently 
do not love God, as is evinced by their con- 
duct. I personally know many men who 
would not violate their word sooner than 
dishonor their credit; but I -perceive that it 
is not love to God which inspires their in- 
tegrity, because these very men do not hesi- 
tate to take his holy name in vain on the 
most trivial occasions; which they v/ould 
never do if they loved him ; nor do they 
hesitate, for the sake of their own pleasure, 
to trample on any precept of his law which 
concerns his honor, and does not involve 
injury to their reputation. 



A FALSE ESTIMATE. 43 

So also do those natural sympatliies which. 
create a character truly amiable, and render 
society pleasant, exist, in connection with a 
treatment of Grod, which could not occur in 
one who loved him. The young ruler 
whom Christ loved for his amiability and 
much worth, thought himself deficient in 
nothing affecting his relations to God. But 
our Saviour unfolded to him the true state 
of his heart, by commanding him to go and 
sell his goods and distribute to the poor ; but 
his heart clung to his wealth, and he found 
that he loved it more than God. 

Course through all history, and you will 
discover that men do not naturally conform 
themselves to the feelings and wishes of their 
Maker, which they would do if they loved 
him, but to their own. They do not set 
him before them, as the object of chief love 
and aim, out of a principle of affection to- 
ward him, to act in accordance with his 
wishes. The heathen do not. Mohamme- 
dans do not. Those who live in neglect of 
the Gospel do not. Men naturally do not. 
They are not governed by a regard for their 



44 LIGHT IX A DARK ALLEY. 

Creator, any further than they have con- 
ceived it to be for their interests and happi- 
ness. If they think it for their interest to 
set aside any precept of the law, or any com- 
mand of the Gospel, and utterly disregard it, 
they do not scruple thus to act. What pre- 
cept of the divine law have they not viola- 
ted? what sin have they not committed to 
please themselves? God, as the object of 
supreme regard, has not been in all their 
thoughts. 

You may think yourself an exception to 
this ; but you cannot deny, when you reflect 
on it, that you have loved yourself and lived 
to your own j^leasure, more than you have 
loved God, or lived to please him. You 
have done everything you could, for your- 
self, to build your own fortune, acquire a 
reputation in the world, and seek your own 
happiness; but you have never hitherto done 
one act out of a sincere regard for jomt Cre- 
ator, and because you love him with all your 
heart and soul. 

Admitting that what you say is true, said 
my friend, and I am not now prepared to 



A FALSE ESTIMATE. 45 

question it, yet you would not surely class 
my prayers and religious duties observed by 
me, as fruits of tbat supreme love of self, to 
which you ascribe the government of the 
man. 

But inquire, I pray you, said I, into the 
motive of these religious observances. What 
has led you to their performance? Kot love 
to God, but a selfish fear of his anger. You 
have trembled in view of his wrath which 
is threatened against the wicked ; and the 
motive of all your prayers has reached 
through God and centered only in yourself 
It is not love to him for his intrinsic excel- 
lence which has drawn you into your closet, 
to commune with him, because you delight 
in him ; but you have wished to invoke his 
gracious aid to deliver your guilty soul from 
hell. You have wished to promote your in- 
terests and happiness by inducing him to 
become your friend, and extending to you 
salvation. Can anything be more selfish than 
prayers offered from such a motive? And 
this motive is the fountain of your religion. 
All your prayers, and observance of reli- 



46 LIGHT LN' A DARK ALLEY. 

gious duties, have sprung from supreme love 
to self, and not from love to God. 

Your mistake of character consists in the 
estimate of it as partially defective only, 
■whereas it is wholly so. You are, as a natu- 
ral man, wholly destitute of all moral good- 
ness in the sight of God. There dwelleth 
in you, as a child of the apostasy, no good 
thing. Good as estimated by a human 
standard there may be, but not in the view 
of that holy Being who commands the su- 
preme affections of the heart to be fixed on 
him. In no suitable respect have you ever 
regarded him, and you are utterly destitute 
of that moral goodness which consists in su- 
premely loving him. 

You may call this total depravity, or give 
it any name you choose ; but it is indisputa- 
ble, that man in his natural state is wholly 
destitute of love to God, is alienated in heart 
from him, and is possessed, in the controlling 
elements of his character, of the spirit of a 
rebel. This is the view of the Bible on this 
point. It is demonstrated to be correct by 
all that we observe of others, and know of 



A FALSE ESTIMATE. 47 

our own hearts. Man has utterly turned 
away from God. He is an apostate from 
that holiness which consists in loving him su- 
premely and obeying him perfectly, in which 
he was originally created. As sinful, he de- 
serves punishment, and is already under 
condemnation. He is lost forever, unless 
recovered through grace. And this state of 
man by nature is the foundation of the plan 
of mercy revealed to the world through 
Jesus Christ. 



AS TO THE GROUND OF HIS ACCEPTANCE WITH THE DIVINE 
BEING. 

If tliese facts are so, said my friend, I 
must confess that it is more difficult than I 
had thought, to be accounted just with God. 
It has always been a favorite opinion, that 
if one does the best he can, Grod, who is infi- 
nitely benevolent, will overlook his little 
sins, and not lay them up against him. 

But you perceive, I rephed, that instead 
of the life being mainly good, and these 
violations of his law little sins, as you call 
them, the life itself is one continued act of 
disobedience, in which nothing has been done 
from love to God, but everything from su- 
preme regard to one's self. While acting un- 
der the control of this supreme affection, not 
one act of true obedience to God is ever 



ERRONEOUS GROUND OF ACCEPTANCE. 49 

performed. For if the governing motive of 
the life be wrong, there is no room in that 
life for a single act done out of supreme re- 
gard to God ; nor, on a close analysis of his 
real motives, can the unconverted sinner 
ever discover one. The entire purport of 
the life is wrong, because not prompted in 
any respect by love to God, and every act 
entering into the life is wrong, for the same 
substantial reason. 

The scriptural fact applicable to this sub- 
ject is, that the world is a revolted province 
of Jehovah's empire, and mankind are united 
in this revolt, those only excepted who have 
become reconciled to him through fciith in 
the Eedeemer ; and though men are kindly 
affection ed one toward another, preserve to- 
ward each other truth and integritj^, and are 
moral in their external deportment, pos- 
sessing in constant exercise the sympathies 
of our nature, yet they are all revolted from 
God. And how absurd would it be for one 
thus in revolt against him, to say, if I do as 
well as I can toward my neighbor, God will 
never lay up against me the few sins com- 
5 



50 LIGHT IX A DARK ALLEY. 

mitted against himself, wlien the life is one 
great sin, and the revolt is continued without 
intermission throughout all its stages ! The 
sin, the great and damning sin, is this very 
revolt. And so long as the spirit of rebel- 
lion reigns in the heart and controls the life, 
how can one so deceive himself as to ima- 
gine himself good and acceptable to God, 
because he has not robbed his neighbor's 
hen-roost, or stolen his purse ; when he has 
never, for one moment, ceased to rob God 
of the affection to which he is entitled, and 
of the obedience which he justly requires ? 

Do not then base your hope on a position 
so groundless, as the pretence that the gen- 
eral purport of your life is right, or can be- 
come right while you continue to live in the 
neglect of God and in disobedience of- the 
Gospel. The question returns with renewed 
force, how can man, as a revolted subject of 
God, be regarded and treated by him as 
just? 

That is more than I can tell, replied my 
friend, unless he can do something to com- 



ERRONEOUS GROUND OF ACCEPTAjSTCE. 51 

pensate his Maker for the injury done him 
by disobedience. 

But what, I asked, can he do ? 

I know not, he rephed, unless to conform 
his life more closely to his duty, and to 
strive to do better for the futare. He should 
pray more, and be more faithful in his reli- 
gious duties. 

All this is very well, said I ; but it does 
not reach the point of the difficulty. Sup- 
pose one who is in revolt against God should 
think he could reform his conduct, break off 
his outward sins, and be more attentive to 
the duties of religion than he had ever been 
before, and yet should continue in revolt, 
still maintaining his rebellion, of what ad- 
vantage would be all his self righteous en- 
deavors, while animated by this wicked 
spirit of revolt? Could his prayers avail 
any thing, Avhen offered to a God against 
whom he assumes the attitude of a rebel ? 
It is evident that while in this state the 
guilty man could do nothing acceptable to 
him. All his works of righteousness, and 
his repetition of prayers, and religious servi- 



52 LIGHT IN" A DARK ALLEY. 

ces, would partake of the same selfish and 
■Qiiholy character, as any other of his acts. 
He might read the Bible and pray ; he might 
constitute himself a member of the purest 
church on earth and partake its sacraments, 
and yet the great and damning sin of revolt 
against God remain. He can do nothing till 
he come out of this state through true re- 
pentance, and by faith be reconciled to God, 
which will give him any assurance of the 
divine acceptance. 

Or if we admit, what is in its own nature 
inadmissible, that one in this state of rebellion 
against God could cease to be a rebel, and 
should lay down his arms, give up the con- 
test, and purpose to live an obedient life 
hereafter ; 5^et this would not remove the 
guilt already incurred, of sins committed ; 
and for these, a just condemnation would 
impend over him. No proffered obedience 
for the future, therefore, can render one that 
is a sinner just with God, even on the sup- 
position that he might cease at once from 
sin, and never sin again. 

But this is impossible : for so long as the 



EREONEOUS GROUND OF ACCEPTANCE. 53 

supreme affection of the soul remains un- 
changed, and man loves himself supremely, 
he cannot render to God one act of true 
obedience, or offer one acceptable prayer. 
He cannot therefore do any thing morally 
good, or create in himself any righteousness, 
for the sake of which he may find favor with 
his Maker. The question therefore again 
returns, How can man in a state of rebellion 
against God be accepted of him ? 

I do not see, said my friend, how he can 
be, either in consequence of his own moral 
virtues, or of the religious services which he 
may perform. He cannot assume the char- 
acter of a righteous person, and even if he 
should, he would but deceive himself. 



5^ 



AS TO THE EFFICIENCY OF THE DIVINE GOODNESS, AS TO 
THE MEANS OF SECURING THE HAPPINESS OF MAN. 

But may not a sinner, continued my friend, 
hope in the divine goodness, and that the 
God who created him will not make him 
jfinally miserable ? It appears to me that I 
can cheerfully yield mj^self up into the hands 
of so merciful a being without fear as to the 
result. 

You abandon then, said I, the hope of jus- 
tification by your own morality, or the per- 
formance of religious duties, for you now cast 
yourself upon the goodness of God, and base 
your hope of escape from punishment on 
this alone. Let us then inquire whether this 
dependence is valid. 

Who is God, and what are his jelations to 
us ? That he is infinitely benevolent none 



EFFICIENCY OF THE DIVINE GOODNESS. 55 

can question. He is also infinitely wise, 
holy, just, and true. All these are parts of 
his perfect character. In the full endow- 
ment of them as the sovereign Grod, he crea- 
ted man, gave him a law for the guidance of 
his actions, and now sits as moral governor 
■upon the throne to maintain his authority 
over him, and bless him by its just and 
rightful exercise. 

His law grows out of the relations into 
which man, as an intelligent creature of Grod, 
is, by birth, introduced. It is not, there- 
fore, an arbitrary enactment, but arises from 
the position of man as creature, nnder the 
administration of a wise and holy Sovereign ; 
and man is bound by every tie of duty to 
obey it. It is as necessary for God to re- 
quire the subjection of man to himself, as it 
is to maintain his government. He would 
sooner perish than yield this right. Good- 
ness requires him to reign. The interests 
and happiness of all created beings depend 
on his maintaining his rightful supremacy. 

But if he would maintain his government, 
he must execute his law. The greatest act 



56 LIGHT IX A DARK ALLEY. 

of goodness wliich a civil governor performs 
toward his subjects, is to maintain in its in- 
tegrity the law upon which the peace and 
happiness of society depends. The criminal 
may suffer, but the obedient are secured in 
the enjoyment of their happiness through 
this means. If the criminal suffer, it is In 
consequence of their own wicked acts ; the 
obedient are made happy through their obe- 
dience. It is impossible for a good civil 
ruler to change the character of those acts 
which are in violation of the law— of those 
crimes which are already committed ; neither 
can God change the wicked and rebellious 
acts of his creatures into holy ones. 

How ought he, then, as a good being, con- 
sulting the interests and happmess of all 
worlds, to treat those who are disobedient 
and continue in wilful rebellion ? He can- 
not have complacency in their conduct. He 
cannot forgive them while indulging the spirit 
ofreb^els. He can but punish them. Hisjustice 
and truth require him to do this, and thus 
execute on them the penalty of his law. The 
highest benevolence which is conceivable, re- 



EFFICIENCY OF THE DIVINE GOODNESS. 57 

quires liim so to treat the wicked as to preserve 
his own just authority, and maintain his gov- 
ernment ; and, that any suffer in consequence 
of this, is not attributable to him, but to 
them. To suppose, therefore, that any con- 
ceivable view of goodness requires him to 
cast aside his law, and prove himself a God 
destitute of integrity or truth, in order to 
save men from the consequences of their own 
wickedness, is to mistake entirely the na- 
ture of goodness, or how it is divinely dis- 
played. 

Goodness impels him to do all that he 
consistently can to rescue the rebellious sub- 
jects of his empire from the misery conse- 
quent on rebellion ; but for this purpose, to 
pass over their offences with impunity, and 
relinquish in their favor the claims of his 
holy law, would not be right ;.and goodness 
requires him to do nothing which he cannot 
do consistently with a- perfect regard to rec- 
titude, and to the interests and happiness of 
his extended empire. 

When you cling to the divine goodness, 
therefore, as the ground of your hope, you 



58 LIGHT m A DARK ALLEY. 

cling to that whicli allowed the holy God to 
cast off the sinning angels, and consign 
them to the prison of hell. You cling to 
that which allowed him to overthrow the 
world with a deluge, to destroy the cities 
of the plain, to cast off Israel, to threaten 
the deepest punishment against the impeni- 
tent, and to keep alive the devouring flames 
of perdition for the judgment of the great 
day, and the dreadful punishment of those 
who will then be sentenced to them. 

Whence did you derive these views of 
goodness in God, which lead you to imagine 
that he will never separate you from heaven ? 
Not from the sacred Scriptures, for these 
teach how his goodness has displayed itself 
in the gift of his Son for our salvation, that 
we may be saved through faith in his atoning 
sacrifice ; but not a word do they contain 
wdiich may lead you to believe that he will 
ever treat the wicked* in their rebellion, as 
he treats the just. Your belief, therefore, 
is only a fancy of your deceived heart, wdiich 
has no foundation in point of fact. Tell me 
of one being, if you can, who is an instance 



EFFICIENCY OF THE DIVINE GOODNESS. 59 

of a sinner continuing in rebellion, made 
happy througli the divine benevolence. The 
thing is impossible. No sinner in his revolt- 
ed state can find any happiness in God, or 
in the thought of the holy heaven where he 
dwells. You might as well suppose that a 
rebel, admitted to the presence of his sover- 
eign, would feel happy there, while the 
dread consciousness fills his breast that he is 
in the power of his sovereign, and j ustly liable, 
at any moment, to be ordered away to exe- 
cution. 

All the goodness of God displayed toward 
you, of which it is possible to conceive as 
consistent with his rectitude, could not make 
3^ou happy, while the consciousness should 
remain, that you are revolted from him. 
Nor could the society of the faithful and 
obedient in heaven save you from the gnaw- 
ings of the undying worm, and the consum- 
ing flame of a quenchless fire, which would 
rage in your own breast. 

God is too good, you say, having created 
you, to make you miserable. But he does 
not make you so. You make yourself 



60 LIGHT IN A DARK ALLEY. 

SO. Acting freely under a system of gov- 
ernment which is wise and holy, just and 
good, and fitted to make happy all who 
yield obedience to God, you choose to turn 
away from him, to transgress his laws, to 
live only to yourself; and misery is the na- 
tural and necessary result. 

But will a good God allow me to run into 
this misery ? He will ; he does. It is no 
more inconsistent to suppose that he will 
allow you to pursue that conduct which will 
make you miserable in the world to come 
than in this. His goodness equally reigns 
in both worlds. And if you may, by sin, 
create misery for yourself here, you may, 
as consistently with his goodness, create 
misery for yourself hereafter. 

But why, you ask, does God permit man 
to act thus, if he is good ? It is because he 
preferred a system of government, and 
adapted man to it, such as should leave 
him to the liberty of his own choice— to 
reward or punishment, according to his con- 
duct. This is the system under which man 
comes into being. A good God established 



EFFICIENCY OF THE DIVINE GOODNESS. 61 

it ; and the same goodness will lead him 
faithfully to carry into effect its provisions. 
If, then, the goodness of God furnishes no 
ground of hope in your case, the question 
arises, How can sinful man become accepted, 
and happy with him ? 

Here my friend seemed fairly to abandon 
the point, and said he could not tell. I can- 
not deny the truth of your positions, said 
he ; but I never before viewed the subject in 
this light. 

That is very probable, I replied, for you 
have never before gone down into the rea- 
son of things, and seen what are the ele- 
mentary principles of irreligion, as they ex- 
ist in a heart revolted from God. You have 
regarded all those expressions delineating 
the natural character of man, as miscon- 
ceived and overwrought ; and, in conscious 
pride and in ignorance of your own heart, 
you have turned away from them, to views 
of human nature more congenial with your 
natural feelings, and in conflict with the 
truth. But now consider, I pray you, if hu- 
man character be not naturally such as is 
6 



62 LIGHT IN A DARK ALLEY. 

described bj me, on what ground is the Gos- 
pel necessary to man's salvation? Why did 
God command obedience to it, and proclaim 
it as the only way of life? Why is salva- 
tion made dependent on the recovery .to the 
soul, by regeneration, of supreme love to 
God? Why has he commanded all men 
everywhere to repent ? If man is not wholly 
revolted from him, and lost as a sinner, why 
this provision for his recovery ? Or, if he 
can, by his own obedience, recover himself, 
why the need of God's giving his only be- 
gotten Son to die as his ransom? Or, if 
the simple goodness of the Deity is all we 
need to rely upon as sinners, why commu- 
nicate to man the Gospel, and enjoin obe- 
dience to it? Is it not palpably evident, 
that where God has provided so great a 
remedy as that set before us in the Gospel, 
there must be a spiritual disease in man 
which renders this remedy necessary? Could 
he for four thousand years have heralded 
the advent of his Son, prefiguring the great 
object of this advent by sacrifices ; could 
he have sent his angels to proclaim with 



EFFICIENCY OF THE DIVINE GOODNESS. 63 

songs of triumpa over the plains of Betli- 
leliem, the joyful news of his birth ; could 
he have begun and carried on a system of 
redemption for the recovery of lost man, so 
wonderful in its plan, so wise in its exe- 
cution, and so effectual to the end he had 
in view, and yet Avhen he devised this plan 
not have regarded the apostate race of man 
as spiritually degenerate and lost to holi- 
ness and heaven? 

You may speculate on this subject as 
you please, and indulge what errors you 
may, yet the great fact meets us at the 
threshold of all our inquiries into revealed 
truth, that man, in his natural character, is 
wholly estranged from his Maker ; and that 
it was to save him, by recovering in him 
holy affections, and a spirit of obedience, 
that God introduced the blessed Gospel to 
the world. This is made known to teach 
man the great plan of his justifying right- 
eousness, through an atoning Saviour ; and 
the very fact of its development, forever an- 
nihilates all those self righteous hopes found- 
ed on his own morality. It sweeps away 



64 LIGHT IN A DARK ALLEY. 

tlie refuges of lies, to whicli, in his pride, 
lie resorts, and brings him down to the sim- 
ple principle, that he must be reconciled to 
God, and love and obey him, or he cannot 
enter into life. 

Here, then, in your natural state, you stand, 
as a revolted subject of God,- in rebellion 
against him, destitute of anything to com- 
mend you to his favor, and deserving to be 
cast away from him forever. Your character 
estimated by a just standard, as it respects 
your relations to God, is defective in all points. 
You have no holiness which he can ajDprove, 
and no fitness of mind for the spiritual duties 
which he commands, and for the pure pleas- 
ures of heaven. The leading element of your 
moral nature is supreme devotion to self, in 
preference to Jehovah. You enthrone self 
in your affections as your idol ; and God, 
in w^hom your breath is, and whose are all 
your ways, you have not glorified. 



AS TO THE CHIEF OBJECT FOR WHICH WE SHOULD LIVE, 
AND THE HAPPINESS ATTAINED BY LIVING TO THIS 
OBJECT. 

It is curious to observe how the darkness 
of the mind as to natural character casts its 
shade on the way of hfe, and obscures the 
path of duty and of happiness. They who 
are in the dark respecting their moral state 
as sinners, sensible of incurring no danger in 
consequence of their neglect of the Gospel, 
seem to live in the world without any defi- 
nite object of pursuit other than to secure 
their present happiness. They devote them- 
selves to the world, occupy their attention 
with its cares, and have no other object for 
which to live. Instead of making a proper 
estimate of what their happiness requires, 
laying their plans wisely to attain it, and 
building their hope on a suitable foundation, 
6^ 



66 LIGHT IN" A DARK ALLEY. 

they float carelessly down tlie tide of life, 
indifferent as to whither they are borne. 
Not reflecting that, in their present moral 
state, they cannot be happy, they will not 
set out in earnest to secure an interest in 
that divine friendship which only can confer 
true happiness upon them, but continue to 
live regardless of the proffered gift. 

The Christian knows on what rests the 
foundation of his hope. He has an object 
definite and fixed, to which his life is devo- 
ted. He has carefully estimated what his 
happiness for time and eternity requires, 
and has made his calculation for both worlds. 
To live to the glory of Grod is the end and 
aim of his being. Once he lived only to 
himself But he was led to perceive his 
error, and to feel that his Creator had claims 
upon him which he could not wisely or safely 
disregard. The consciousness of guilt in 
turning away from the great Jehovah to seek 
his happiness in the creature filled his mind, 
and, with tears of penitence, he retraced his 
wayward steps, and gave himself away to 
God, through faith in the Eedeeaier. Be- 



MISTAKE IN LIFE. 67 

lieving in the Saviour, lie found pardon and 
peace. Henceforth devoted to his glory, as 
the glory of that Being whom he now su- 
premely loves, it became the chief object of 
his life to please him. He now feels that 
his happiness centres in God, and that with 
his friendship he can never knov*^ the disap* 
pointment of the Avorldly mind at the failure 
of its schemes. 

Choosing Grod as the portion of his soul, 
and loving him with all the heart, naturally 
tends to bring him into a sympathy of feeling 
and of interest with him; he loves his law, 
is obedient unto his Gospel, and feels a high 
elevation of Christian enjoyment in doing 
good ; thus imitating him who is the foun- 
tain of all excellence, the only worthy object 
of praise. Living to the glory of this Being 
secures his happiness. It assimilates it to 
that of God. He feels the same spiritual joys 
that God does, and delights in the same 
holy pleasures. He is raised above the 
power of adversity. Disappointment cannot 
reach and tear away the foundation of his 



68 LIGHT m A DARK ALLEY. 

hope. The loss of all earthly good cannot 
deprive him of the highest spiritual enjoy- 
ment which springs from God's friendship. 
His happiness is centered in him alone, and 
is as eternal as is his nature. 

You draw a pleasing picture, said my 
friend, of the object for which the Christian 
lives, and of the happiness which living to it 
confers ; can it be a reahty ? Is this a fair 
view of this subject ? 

It is indeed a pleasing picture, I remark- 
ed, but it is none the less true to nature. It 
is the essential characteristic of the relio-ion 
of Jesus Christ that it brings man into 
friendship with God, and prompts him to 
live unto his glory. In the nature of things, 
this must be so. But it is not the tendency 
of that ignorance of natural character which 
causes men to live in neglect of the Gospel, 
to produce this happy result. They who 
live in this neglect are not led by their prin- 
ciple to draw nigh to God, but to depart 
from him. They come not to the light, but 
love the darkness, and continue to seek their 



MISTAKE I^sT LIFE. 69 

happiness in those temporal and fading ob- 
jects where it does not exist and can never 
be found. • 

The view which many persons take of 
the nature of true fehcity, and of the means 
to attain it, shows their utter darkness on 
this subject. In how many different ways 
do men seek happiness? What object have 
they not sought with this end in view? 
And they have always failed to attain it, 
when they have turned away from God. 
Like men wandering in the dark, and roving 
from object to object in search of happiness, 
without a consciousness felt of what is neces- 
sary to secure it, do those who are ignorant 
of their natural character thus wander and 
find disappointment at every step. They 
know not what their happiness requires, or 
how to seek it, because darkness is in their 
minds. They are ignorant of the causes of 
their wretchedness, and feel no solicitude 
therefore for their removal. They are igno- 
rant of the Gospel, as the means to effect 
their deliverance from these evils, and there- 
fore live in its habitual neglect. Thus they 



10 LIGHT m A DAKK ALLEY. 

wander like men who live in a dark alley, 
and know not how to emerge from it. 

I often meet with affecting instances illus- 
trative of this moral blindness. . Men who 
might have attained happiness and lived in 
the enjoyment of the divine friendship, had 
they listened to the teachings of the sacred 
oracles, but who, in ignorance of their moral 
state by nature, have treated them with neg- 
lect, have sometimes, after long wandering 
in the dark, been driven to desperation and 
to self-destruction, in consequence of their 
wrong conceptions of the object for which 
they should live. 

That brings to my remembrance, said my 
friend, some whom I have known, who, hav- 
ing become disgusted with the world, have 
terminated their life by their own hands. 

The same is the result of my own obser- 
vation, I remarked. Disgusted with the 
w^orld, ignorant of God as the fountain of 
true hajopiness and of the means to secure 
his friendship, ignorant of their own charac- 
ter as sinful, and of this as the source of all 
their spiritual wretchedness, they have de- 



MISTAKE m LIFE. Il 

spaired of earth and died by tlaeir own hand. 
Could they have understood their moral 
state by nature, and been prompted to seek 
God, and to obtain reconciliation to him 
through Jesus Christ, they might have lived 
to higher enjoyments than earth affords. But 
they neglected the mercy offered in the Gos- 
pel, and died as does the fool. It is but a 
few days since I read in the public journals 
an instance of the kind specified. A young 
man, disgusted with the world, despairing 
of the happiness which he vainly sought in 
the objects of life around him, committed 
suicide ; and, to put at rest forever all spe- 
culations as to the cause of criminal disre- 
gard of life, he left the following statement 
of his views ; it is a melancholy testimony 
to the powerlessness of infidelity to provide 
for the soul those high enjoyments which 
are suited to its nature. 

*' I have passed my life," said he, ^' in the 
search after happiness. Like other men I 
have tried and exhausted all the springs of 
action : ambition, friendship, love, have all 



12 LIGHT IX A DAEK ALLEr. 

moved me in their turn, but yet have not 
brought happiness. 

''" Mine has indeed been a ^ battle of life.' 
And as I have kept my post upon its field, 
I have beheld all that makes life happy pass 
for ever aAvay. Projects of fame have failed, 
friends have fallen from my side, the love of 
my youth has turned to gall in my breast, 
the wife of my bosom has deserted and de- 
nied me, wealth has slipped from my grasp — 
all has proved but a dreary blank. And 
now at the end of the strife, I stand alone 
upon the plain, my dead hopes strewn 
around in mockery, and nothing in the fu- 
ture but despair and death. 

'^ Why it has been thus with me — why I 
have never enjoyed the happiness that other 
men have revelled in around me, I stop not 
to inquire. Suffice it that I have not. As 
many another, many a better, many a wiser 
man has found it less terrible to meet death, 
than to brave the scornful finger of the 
world and to endure the gnawings of bitter 
thoughts, so I ; and from a life of care and 



MISTAKE IN LIFE. '^3 

trouble, and more sorrow tlian my proud 
nature can bear, I turn to the quiet and 
silence of death. And what comes after ? 
Eternity ! dark, blank, mysterious, and un- 
fathomed eternity ! In a single hour I shall 
have solved its mystery." 

It is an affecting illustration of the folly of 
living to the world. He vainly strove to 
find his happiness where, in the nature of 
things, it cannot be found ; and it is melan- 
choly to reflect how Avantonly and wick- 
edly he sacrificed his eternal hopes on the 
altar of a worldly ambition, and in profound 
ignorance of the truth which he was chiefly 
interested to know. Nor can I help regard- 
ing this as a fair example of the way 
in Avhich many wander in the dark after 
happiness, to find themselves at last fatally 
deceived. There is light, glorious light, 
beaming upon them through the Gospel; 
but they neglect it. They make up their 
minds, often for very frivolous reasons, that 
the Gospel is unworthy their attention ; they 
trust in the delusions of their own darkened 
minds, and find no refuge for the anxieties 
7 



14: LIGHT IN A DARK ALLEY. 

and fears which press upon them ; and, in 
ignorance of their responsibihties to God, 
and of the scenes which occur in the future 
world, they seek this refuge in the grave. 
Most emphatic is the language of our Sa- 
viour, expressive of the deep pity with which 
he regards such Wind infatuation, when he 
says of his misguided countrymen, '' If thou 
hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy 
day, the things which belong unto thy peace ! 
but now they are hid from thine eyes." 

In the days of Christ on earth, there were 
those who lived in the neglect of his teach- 
ings, for the same reason that men now neg- 
lect the Gospel. They were blinded to their 
own natural character, and lived in the dark- 
ness which sin induced. The Pharisee, who 
trusted that he had injured no one, and con- 
fided in his own righteousness ; the Saddu- 
cee, who denied a future state ; the Scribe 
and the priest, all lived in the dark alley, 
and never came to the light. As the de- 
niers of Christ they perished, as multitudes 
do, who now live in the neglect of the Gos- 
pel ; and it is our Saviour's testimony res- 



MISTAKE m LIFE. 75 

pecting tliem that *' light has come into the 
world, and men have loved darkness rather 
than light, because their deeds are evil.'' 
Men do not now come to the light, because 
they do not wish to be in subjection to those 
principles of truth and duty which the light 
reveals. Do you not, from your own obser- 
vation, perceive the truth of this remark? 

In some respects I do, said ni}^ friend. I 
once knew a man, whom his friends sought 
to reclaim from intemperance ; but he pro- 
fessed a hatred of all temperance people, and 
would never be influenced to pledge himself 
against his sinful indulgence, though be- 
sought with tears to do so. But there was 
no difficulty in persuading the sober and 
temperate neighbor by his side. It is clear, 
therefore, that the love of strong drink in- 
fluenced the opinions and conduct of the 
drunkard, and prevented him from pursuing 
the only course to be reclaimed. 

In the same way, I said, do men avoid re- 
ligion, and neglect the Gospel ; because the 
tendency of giving heed to these things is to 
restrict them in their worldly pleasures, in 



Y6 LIGHT IX A DAKK ALLEY. 

wliich they fancy their happiness to reside ; 
and, having no higher view of the chief end 
of life than to revel in such pleasures, they 
turn away from the blessed light of the Gos- 
pel which reveals God unto them, and teach- 
es that their true happiness consists in living 
to his glory. 

They are in the dark, because they love 
the pleasures which they find there, and fear 
the effect of the light, should it be let in 
upon them ; and this is the natural operation 
of depravity. Men who love themselves su- 
premely, do not wish to have the claims of 
God on their affection asserted, nor to feel 
that they are under any obligation to regard 
his wishes. All that they desire or ask of 
him is, that he would let them alone, and 
leave them to the indulgence of their plea- 
sures. Their greatest efforts are often made 
to keep him out of their thoughts, and this 
is the reason why they neglect the Gospel. 
They turn away from religion in disgust, be- 
cause they are themselves so op230site in 
moral feeling to its holy requisitions. This 
inward disgust for spiritual religion, accom- 



MISTAKE IN LIFE. 11 

panied with a tendency to conjure up the 
various delusions of error as the ground of 
their confidence, is the evident token of that 
depravity which reigns with unbroken sway 
over the mind. 

Those who live in the neglect of the 
Gospel are under the control of this feeling, 
and they are led by it into a thousand specu- 
lative notions, which are far from the truth. 
I doubt not, if you will examine the state of 
your own mind, you will discover that, com- 
bined with an inward feeling of dislike to 
the duties of spiritual religion, which arises 
from a depraved heart, there are a thousand 
forms of error afloat in your thoughts, upon 
which you would rest your hope of heaven, 
if you could do so with the assurance of 
truth. One thought passes through your 
mind after another, and one system of error 
after another ; and yet you can fix upon 
nothing permanently and securely upon 
which you are willing to base a justification 
of your neglect of the Gospel. 

What has given you such an insight into 
the operations of my mind, said my friend ? 
7^ 



78 LIGHT IN A DARK ALLEY. 

If I liad attempted it myself, I could not 
have more accurately described my own spi- 
ritual state. 

I know these states of mind, said I, 
from having myself once experienced them. 
As those who supremely love God have the 
same views, feelings, and enjoyments, or, a 
the state of one holy mind describes that of 
another, as to the substantial elements of its 
character, so does the mind in which self-love 
reigns supremely possess, with others of a 
kindred class, like elements : " As face an- 
swereth to face in a glass, so does the heart of 
man to man." 

Men ignorant of their natural character 
as fallen and sinful, thus live in the dark as 
to the great object for which they should 
livCj and as to the happiness which results 
from walking in the path of obedience to 
God ; and herein consists the source of that 
wretchedness which depravity occasions. It 
blinds men to the chief good which they 
should pursue, and might, through grace, 
attain, and leaves them to grope in the dark 
after lesser pleasures which the world affords, 



MISTAKE IN LIFE. 79 

and which must at last disappoint them. No 
man can thus live to the world, yet fulfil the 
true end of his being. No man can thus 
turn away from God, and the duties which 
he oommands expressly for his good, and not 
make in the end a miserable failure ; and it 
is the tendency of sin thus to impel men on, 
in the neglect of Grod, to their own ruin. 



AS TO THE LIGHT EMANATING FROM THE GOSPEL. 

The Gospel reveals a remedy for sin. If 
we know what is the natural state of man, 
wherein he fails of his duty, and what 
foundation there is laid in his moral nature 
for the ruin which sin occasions, it will ena- 
ble us the more readily to comprehend how 
the Gospel becomes effectual to his spiritual 
recovery. Its peculiar nature and ofl&ce 
present themselves but obscurely to a mind 
ignorant of these preliminary principles. 

If the estimate of the Gospel, which is 
formed in ignorance of the evil which it is 
designed to remove, were correct, that plan 
of recovering grace would present nothing to 
our view worthy of notice. The sacred 
Scriptures, both of the Old Testament and 
the New, would resemble a dead letter. As 



LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 81 

the means of man's spiritual recovery, wisely 
adapted to cure the moral evil existing in his 
sinful heart, .they would never be received, 
nor known. The distinguishing feature of 
the Gospel is its power over the heart to re- 
claim it, by the restoration of those right af- 
fections toward God, which are appropriate 
to the relations of man as a creature. It is 
this which places the Gospel immeasurably 
above every other religious system. There 
is nothing in any other claiming to have 
come from God which produces the same 
eflfects. Nor is there anything in the erro- 
neous views of religion, represented in the 
several creeds of the moralist, unitarian, uni- 
versalist, infidel, or nothingist, which cor- 
responds with the Gospel as the means of 
man's spiritual recovery. Did you never 
think, my friend, how useless this plan of 
mercy is, said I, if it accomplish no more 
for man than what these several classes of 
errorists ascribe to it ? 

I have often thought of it, he replied ; 
and it has occasioned me no little perplexity 
to know why God should take such pains to 



82 LIGHT IN" A DARK ALLEY. 

offer to the world a plan of mercy wLicli 
cost him the blood of his own Son, if there 
were no more important results^ involved in 
thi^ sacrifice than what these represent. I 
could never perceive any particular neces- 
sity for the Gospel, if on their principles we 
may be saved. It appears clear to me that, 
if man is by nature such as you represent 
and claim the sacred Scriptures to teach — a 
revolted subject of God, already involved in 
guilt and ruin — something more must be 
required for his spiritual recovery than 
what I find taught by many who claim 
in their articles of faith to represent the 
Gospel. 

You are unquestionably right in your con- 
jecture, I replied. For if man love himself 
supremely, he must of necessity have differ- 
ent interests from those of God, and be in 
heart opposed to his rightful supremacy. To 
be recovered from this state, the governing 
affection of his soul must be changed. He 
must be won over to God in heart. A deep 
and abiding transformation must occur within 
him. And it is for the production of such 



LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 83 

a spiritual cliange in the selfish, heart of man, 
that the Gospel has been given to the world. 
But in the various shades of opinion in those 
who neglect the Gospel, there is nothing 
which has power to effect a spiritual change 
in man, and recover his affections back to 
God. 

The moralist trusts in a mere external 
conformity to the rules of society. There is 
nothing in his creed to reach and renew the 
heart. When his principles have produced 
all the effect of which they are capable, they 
leave the soul enslaved by its wrong affec- 
tions, and in the same state of moral degen- 
eracy in which they find it. 

Unitarianism, as a system professedly the 
Gospel, is also morally inert. It infuses 
no right affections into the soul of apos- 
tate and ruined man. Disrobing the Sav- 
iour of his divinity, it incapacitates him 
from offering up a propitiatory sacrifice, and 
making an atonement for sin ; and it thus 
deprives the Gospel of the only effectual 
means to reach and change the heart. 

Universalism is similar in its influence. 



84 LIGHT IN A DAEK ALLEY. 

While denying the Saviour's divinity and 
his vicarious sacrifice, it removes all those 
motives to repentance which arise from the 
conviction of danger, by teaching a salva- 
tion inclusive of the whole human family, 
irrespective of their character or moral 
state. 

Infidelity, in denying the truth and in- 
spiration of the sacred Scriptures, would 
destroy the efficacy of the Gospel, and yet 
substitute nothing in its place. And there 
is a kind of nothingism also, which is a 
term expressive of absolute indifference to 
all religion whatsoever, and is chiefly charac- 
teristic of those who live in the neglect of 
the Gospel. 

In these various systems of error, there 
is presented to view no principle which is 
operative in the recovery of the sinner's 
heart to God. Their influences are all of a 
different character, and bear no resemblance 
to those of the Gospel. 

Is it to be believed that, for four thousand 
years, God would carry on a work of pre- 
paration for the introduction of the Gospel, 



LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 85 

and that lie would send his own Son to suf- 
fer the horrid agonies of death upon the 
cross for man, if there were no reclaiming 
power in this Gospel superior to that which 
exists in any or all of these false systems ? 
Would he, in view of our moral ruin, 
have instituted any of those systems, or any 
other plan of recovering grace, but that which 
is competent to do for man what his spiritual 
necessities require ? In the nature of things, 
it is right to presume that he would aim at 
no less a work than his complete recovery 
to holiness. 

On this point, the testimonies of his word 
are very specific. '^ I am come," said Christ, 
** to seek and to save them that are lost." "I 
came not to call the righteous, but sinners to 
repentance." ^^ It is a faithful saying, and 
worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ 
came into the world to save sinners." He 
is set before us as ^^ a Prince and a Saviour, 
to give repentance to Israel and remission 
of sins." He came " to save his people from 
their sins." *' I am not ashamed," said Paul, 
" of the Gospel of Christ ; for it is the wis- 



86 LIGHT IN A DARK ALLEY. 

dom of Grod and the power of God unto sal- 
vation to every one that believeth." 

It is the chief aim of the Grospel to com- 
municate to man the knowledge of a system 
of forgiveness adapted to his case. It teaches 
that his best endeavors to remove from him- 
self the curse of sin will be unavailing, but 
that he may be forgiven for the sake of what 
Christ hath done and suffered in his behalf. 
It inculcates a system of forgiving mercy, 
based on the atoning sacrifice. It clearly un- 
folds the nature and grounds of this mercy, 
and how one who is alienated from God and 
under his curse, may be restored to holiness 
and happiness. 

The Old Testament teaches the way of 
salvation through forgiveness as explicitly 
as the New. But it does not as distinctly 
set forth the ground on which pardon is 
conferred. Its types and symbols shadow 
forth what the Gospel more fully develops. 
There is no difference in the nature of their 
teachings, save as to the clearness in which 
tlie system of mercy is revealed. Abel was 
saved through the forgiveness of his sins, as 



LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 87 

was Paul. It was not the blood of sacrifi- 
cial offerings whicli purchased this remission, 
but the blood of Christ, thus symbolically 
represented. The Jewish system was found- 
ed on the same principles, and secured the 
same practical results, as the Christian; the 
only difference being, that the one, by its sa- 
crifices, pointed to Christ, the great atoning 
sacrifice, who was to come ; the other unfolds 
the way in which the shedding of his blood 
becomes effectual. 

In the system of pardoning grace revealed 
in the sacred Scriptures, both of the Old 
Testament and the New, the same substan- 
tial principles are set forth, as essential to 
the exercise of pardoning mercy -on the part 
of God, and which he could not disregard 
in any plan of salvation adopted for the re- 
covery of lost men. 



AS TO THE NATURE OF THE GOSPEL AS UNFOLDING THE 
GREAT PRINCIPLES OF RECOVERING GRACE. 

To compreliend tlie peculiar office of tlie 
Gospel, and in what way God addresses him- 
self through it to the recoveiy of his revolted 
and rebellious subjects, there are certain 
principles which must be recognized as na- 
turally belonging to any system of recover- 
ing grace emanating from the Deity, and as 
essential to it ; these the Gospel pro23erh^ in- 
cludes and distinctly reveals. 

1. God, as a righteous moral governor, in 
a plan of grace pro^oosed for the recovery 
to holiness of apostate man, must make 

AMPLE PROVISION TO SUSTAIN" HIS LAW, AND 

FULLY TO VINDICATE ITS CLAIMS. Any Sys- 
tem of religion professing to have come from 
him, which fails to do this, or the tendency 
of which is to overthrow or annul the claims 



ELEMENTARY PRIIS'CIPLES. 89 

of his righteous law, is unworthy of him, 
and cannot, therefore, have come from him, 
or be the Gospel that he has revealed. For 
it is evident that he cannot lay aside his 
own sovereignty, nor suffer his integrity to 
be impugned, nor permit his law to become 
a dead letter on his statute book. It is the 
fatal defect of all those systems which lead 
to a neglect of the Gospel, that they make 
no provision, in this respect, to sustain the 
divine integrity or justice. 

The moralist imagines God to be so re- 
gardless of his law as, for the sake of a cor- 
rect outward deportment, and a purposed 
honesty of life, to pass over all his sins. 
The unitarian and universalist, at one fell 
blow, sweep away both the law and its sanc- 
tions. The infidel, the practical unbeliever, 
the nothingist, and the neglecters of the Gos- 
pel of every description, practically set aside 
the claim of God on the love and obedience 
of men, as expressed in his law. In none 
of their religious systems is there provision 
made to sustain its righteous claims. It falls 
into nothingness before them, and is con- 
8^ 



90 LIGHT IlSr A DARK ALLEY. 

sumed as tlie tow before the fire. This de- 
fect is fatal to these systems, as having 
come professedly from God. They show no 
provision made to uphold his truth and jus- 
tice. They represent him as setting forth 
his law with its dreadful sanctions, and 
then, without any reason, other than that 
conceived by them as existing in his own 
mind, as casting it aside, and receiving the 
guilty children of the apostasy, Avithout dis- 
crimination of character, to his bosom. 

Here, in all these systems, is discoverable 
this main defect. They overlook the natural 
character of man, his apostasy, and the im- 
mutability and justice of the divine law ; 
and they make no provision for the difficulty 
involved in the supposition, that the infinite 
Jehovah can prescribe a law, and then wan- 
tonly disregard it; or that, as a righteous 
lawgiver and sovereign, he can permit it to 
be trampled on with impunity. 

But it is clear that, in the plan of mercy 
devised by him, God must and will sustain 
his law. No fact is more distinctly and fully 
set forth in the sacred oracles. Man, when 



ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES. 91 

he sinned, therefore, fell under the curse. 
This God did not remove, but only sus- 
pended for a season, to give him a space for 
repentance, in consequence of that gracious 
plan of mercy revealed in the Gospel, which 
then began to take effect. View his treat- 
ment of the sinners of the old world, those 
of Sodom and Gomorrah, and those under 
the Jewish dispensation. All his dealings 
with Israel show a determination on his 
part not to permit his law to be treated with 
disrespect ; nor is there any evidence con- 
tained in the sacred Scriptures of the Old 
Testament to show that he has ever treated 
it as a nullity. When the knowledge of 
it had become partially obscured through 
the corruptions and sins of men, he solemnly 
proclaimed it on Sinai, and there published 
it to the world as the rule of life which every 
one is required to observe ; and at every point 
of history illustrative of his treatment of 
men, down to the advent of Christ, he has 
shown how he feels and is determined to act, 
in this particular. No man, under the old 
dispensation, ever obtained mercy, except- 



92 LIGHT IN A DAEK ALLEY. 

ing through repentance. This is the means 
of forgiveness set forth in the Gospel, and 
through it the law is sustained in all its in- 
tegrity. 

^'I am not come to destroy the law," said 
Christ, '' for, till heaven and earth pass, one 
jot or tittle shall in no wise pass from the 
law till all be fulfilled." He describes the 
law as casting the impenitent into outer 
darkness, and consigning them to the place 
of punishment in the world to come ; setting 
forth this condemnation and punishment as 
the necessary and certain award of all who 
do not escape into the way of life through 
the Gospel. 

In like manner the apostles and teachers 
of the Christian religion distinctly uphold 
the integrity of the law. "Do we then make 
void the law through faith?" said Paul : " God 
forbid : yea, we establish the law." He re- 
presents it as having been the means of his 
own conviction, and that it is designed as a 
schoolmaster to lead us to Christ. There is 
no intimation given in any of the sacred 
writings, that God has ever dispensed with 
the claims of his law in favor of man, ex. 



ELEMENTARY PEI^^CIPLES. 93 

cepting in the way and through the means 
pecuHar to the Gospel. 

But if there were no other evidence to 
this point, that derived from the atoning 
sacrifice is sufficient. This sacrifice had a 
special reference to the justice and immu- 
tability of the divine law. How could Je- 
hovah, as a just lawgiver, forgive the sin 
which he had threatened to punish, with- 
out endangering the respect which man should 
feel for his authority, and casting his law 
altogether aside ? He could not, excepting 
through a provision peculiarly his own. And 
this it is the great end and aim of the Gospel to 
develop. His Son was to become incar- 
nate, obey the law, and under it, suffer a 
punishment equivalent in its moral bearings 
on the universe to that which is due to sin- 
ners, and thus make it manifest that if God. 
out of respect to his law, would not remit its 
clauTis in favor of his own Son, no mere 
creature would dare to transgress, and yet 
expect remission. An atoning sacrifice, 
equal in grandeur to the infinite dignity of 
the lawgiver, may thus prove as efficacious 



94 LIGHT IN A DARK ALLEY. 

to sustain the law, as the execution of the 
penalty on erring man would have done. 
Hence it became necessary that he who 
would take upon himself this work of expia- 
tion, should be a divine person. And 
that such was our Saviour, is the unerring 
testimony of the sacred Scriptures. As a 
divine person he became incarnate, and as 
such obej^ed and suffered ; and such is the 
virtue of his atoning sacrifice that, for its 
sake, God can forgive the repentant sinner 
without endangering his law. 

The same authority which prescribed the 
law, has provided this remedy for its trans- 
gression. The virtue of an infinite atone- 
ment equals the virtue of an infinite law ; 
and its effect on the universe is the same as 
if the law had received a literal execution 
in the condemnation and eternal misery of 
man. It upholds the law as holy and good, 
and pleads exemption from the curse only 
as an act of grace, and in view of the equiv- 
alent offered by Jesus Christ. The justice 
of God presents itself to the universe as great 
and admirable, and as worthy of the same 



ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES. 95 

reverence when displayed to view in Christ's 
suflferings under the law, as it would have 
been in the sinner's own sufferings. 

In this way, God manifests his determina- 
tion to sustain his law, even in the exercise 
of his forgiving mercy; and the Gospel is 
the development of this plan of mercy. It 
was first published in Eden, where the advent 
and sufferings of God's own Son as a Saviour 
were distinctly foretold. The sacrifices of 
blood, from the offering of Abel to the cru- 
cifixion of Christ, were but the means to 
shadow forth, and impress upon the mind, 
the plan of atonement through vicarious 
suffering, to be accomplished in Christ. The 
blood shed on the altar was the shadow, and 
that shed upon the cross was the substance 
of this great atoning sacrifice. 

Eepentance, as necessary to salvation, de- 
rives all its virtue from this atoning sacrifice. 
No sinner can ever approach God through 
the Gospel but as repentant, and basing his 
hope of forgiveness in Christ alone. But 
why is repentance demanded, unless in view 
of a transgression of the divine law, which 



96 LIGHT IX A I)AEK ALLEY. 

law is thus demonstrated to be even now in 
force? Eepentance can be exercised only 
in view. of a law broken or violated. In re- 
pentance, tLe sinner must confess his sin, and 
justify God in its threatened punishment; 
he must turn from his evil ways and re- 
nounce them ; he must feel toward the di- 
vine law as God feels toward it, and treat it 
as God would have him do ; and it is the 
effect of the plan of mercy revealed in the 
Gospel, of which the atoning sacrifice is the 
foundation, to bring man into this position. 
He cannot receive forgiveness, till, in repent- 
ance for his sins, he sustains the law as 
holy, just, and good, and acknowledges the 
holiness and justice of the divine character, 
in sustaining it b}^ a penalty which condemns 
him, as guilty, to the perdition of the un- 
godly. 

Here then, we perceive, as one of the 
main pillars of the system of mercy revealed 
in the Gospel, a uniform determination on 
the part of God to sustain his law, and not 
remove from any man its threatened curse, 
except in such a way as to secure in him the 



ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES. 97 

acknowledgment of this law as just, and to 
bring him over to God in true repentance, 
and in dependence on the provisions of his 
grace to take away sin. Neither in God, nor 
in those who base their hope of salvation on 
a crucified Eedeemer, is there manifest any 
design to cast aside the law, or treat its 
claims with disrespect. 

Compare the Gospel as the means of sus- 
taining the divine law with the various 
forms of error to which allusion has been 
made, and how infinitely does it transcend 
them ! There are no such provisions to sus- 
tain the divine integrity, existing in all the 
forms of religion ever devised, separate from 
the Gospel. Unitarianism, universalism, and 
other similar systems of error, take away 
the virtue of Jesus Christ's vicarious suf- 
ferings, through the denial of his divin- 
ity. They thus remove the only means of 
making the world feel that God immutably 
adheres to the justice and integrity of his 
law. They virtually overthrow his law. 
They teach error as truly opposite to the 
Gospel, and as destructive of it, as Moham- 



98 LIGHT IN" A DARK ALLEY. 

medanism does. As systems of religion in 
whicli to trust, they are not a whit safer for 
the sinner than idolatry, or the faith of the 
false prophet. Where do th^ infidel, the 
moralist, the nothingist, and the neglecter 
of the Gospel find anything in their several 
forms of belief to sustain God as holy, just, 
and good in the forgiveness of that sin which 
he has threatened to punish ? Their sys- 
tems of belief all tend to overthrow his 
righteous government, by teaching that he 
is regardless of the claims of his law, and 
that man may live as he pleases here, and 
yet, after death, be holy and happy in 
heaven. There is not one form of these 
errors which teaches us to treat God with 
holy reverence, or to acknowledge him as de- 
serving it. They are all systems of -false- 
hood. They cannot be otherwise. There is 
no element of truth in them. They are ^-no 
part of the Gospel. They take away our 
Lord, and teach us not where to find him. 
They are no more consistent with the holi- 
ness, justice, and goodness of God, than Mo- 
hammedanism is. 



ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES. 99 

Is not this a new view, said my friend? 

No, I replied, it is as old as the apostasy. 

But I never before took this view of the 
Gospel, said he. 

That is very likely, I replied, because you 
never before have had a correct view of the 
character of man as apostate from God. 

But, said my friend, you make the dif- 
ference between your views of the Gospel 
and those of others which you enumerate to 
be very great. If you are right, they have 
nothing incorporated into their systems upon 
which to base a Gospel hope. 

That is the very point, I rephed, on which 
I wish to fix your attention. For it is clear 
that theirs are none of them the system re- 
vealed in the Gospel, and that they have not 
come from God, because they tend directly 
to overthrow his law. 

2. It is another principle, unfolding the 
Gospel to view as glorious, that, in it GoD 

MAKES HIMSELF KNOWN TO MAN AS SIN-FOR- 
GIVING, AND AIMS FULLY TO IMPRESS THIS 
GREAT TRUTH ON EVERY MIND. In COnSC- 

quence of a divine arrangement established 



100 LIGHT IN A DARK ALLEY. 

by an immutable covenant, that God tbe 
Son should come in the flesh and offer up 
his life a sacrifice for guilty men^ Jehovah 
early manifested to the world the tokens of 
forgiving mercy. By the acceptance of Abel 
and his offering, he showed that he had al- 
ready, in effect, been propitiated, and could 
freely forgive the sins of the penitent and 
believing. In his intercourse with Enoch, 
Noah, Abraham and the patriarchs, he man- 
ifested the same readiness to forgive. He 
proclaimed to Moses that he is long-suffer- 
ing and abundant in goodness and truth, for- 
giving iniquity, transgression and sin ; and 
the whole system of vicarious offerings pro- 
mulgated, through him, to the Jewish nation, 
still further revealed his disposition to for- 
give. 

"When the Israelites repented, he freely 
forgave their sins. When David returned 
to God broken-hearted, on account of his 
transgressions, he experienced mercy. All 
the testimonies of the Old Testament illus- 
trate this readiness in Jehovah to pardon and 
accept those who humbly seek his face. And, 



ELEMENTAKY PEINCIPLES. 101 

in accordance with this, the directions of God 
by his prophets were, ^'Eepent, turn your- 
selves from all your transgressions, so ini- 
quity be not your ruin." *^Let the wicked 
forsake his way, and the unrighteous man 
his thoughts, and let him turn unto the Lord, 
and he will have mercy upon him, and unto 
our God, and he will abundantly pardon." 

Thus, by express precept, by innumera- 
ble examples, and by all the conduct of Je- 
hovah in his treatment of mankind, it is made 
evident that he is a sin-forgiving God, The 
same truth our Saviour taught, and he illus- 
trated it by his own affecting example, when 
he said to the penitent Mary, " Thy sins are 
forgiven thee, go in peace." In the parable 
of the prodigal son, he inculcated the same 
great truth. He bade men repent, and be- 
lieve in him, that they might be saved. All 
his instructions were, in fact, directed to in- 
fluence them to come to him, and, through 
his grace, receive pardon. 

The same great truth was also inculcated 
by the apostles. PaTul taught that Abraham 
and David were saved through the forgive- 
9^ 



102 LIGHT IN A DAKK ALLEY. 

ness of their sms. John tauQ:ht, that if we 
repent of our sins, he is faithful to forgive 
us. 

Though God will not relax the claims of 
his law, and is determinately bent on inflict- 
ing its penalty upon all who persist in their 
impenitence, yet he is also represented as sin- 
forgiving, and as exercising this mercy to- 
ward the penitent and believing, not for their 
sakes, but for the sake of the vicarious sacri- 
fice offered upon the cross in the person of 
his Son. All the blood shed at Jewish altars 
from the apostasy to the advent of Christ, 
points to this sacrifice. Forgiveness to the 
repenting for the sake of this atoning sacri- 
fice, which was published in Eden to the 
fallen pair, presents itself to view in all the 
transactions of the Old Testament, in the ex- 
amples, teachings and predictions of all its 
holy men, and in the instructions of Christ 
and his apostles. 

Forgiveness of sins is proffered in view of 
the atoning blood which was shed on Cal- 
vary. The Gospel confains a perfect reve- 
lation of this scheme of forgiveness. It 



ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES. 103 

teaches tliat ^^ the blood of Jesus Christ 
cleanseth from all sins." ^'We are redeem- 
ed, not with corruptible things, as silver and 
gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, 
as of a Lamb without blemish and without 
spot." Jesus Christ is set forth as ^' the 
Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the 
world." ^^In whom we have redemption 
through his blood, even the forgiveness of 
sins.'' *^ For without the shedding of blood, 
there is no remission." The substance of 
the Gospel is remission of sins through 
the atoning blood of Jesus Christ. And 
this Gospel, which began to be published in 
the garden of Eden, will continue its merci- 
ful proclamations to the lost race, till the last 
sinner on earth that is redeemed shall be 
gathered in. 

But, having no correct view of man's na- 
tural character as needing this remission of 
sins, there are many who live neglectful of 
this blessed Gospel. They view the surface 
only, and are influenced by depravity to 
pervert the truth. Hence the loose notions 
respecting the Gospel held by Socinians, 



104 LIGHT IN A DARK ALLEY. 

■anitarians, universalists, moralists andnoth- 
ingists. Where, in any of their systems, is 
there taught the great doctrine of forgive- 
ness through a vicarious atonement? They 
overthrow this main pillar of the Gospel by 
inculcating such an erroneous view of Christ 
and his offices, as can have its origin only in 
ignorance of the state of their own hearts by 
nature. They teach Christ to have been a 
good man, to have displayed a virtuous ex- 
ample, and to have been an eminent moral- 
ist, and that is all. And this error is one 
which tears up by the roots the whole Gos- 
pel system. 

But are there not good men, said my 
friend, among these several classes ? I have 
sometimes heard their preachers, and if I 
had not known where I was, I should have 
thought myself listening to some of your 
best divines. Besides, how many do I know 
who live very exemplary lives, and are 
moral, honest and industrious ? And there 
are some whom I would sooner trust in my 
business, than many of your church mem- 
bers. 



ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES. 105 

There are various topics of pulpit instruc- 
tion, I replied, which are common to all 
who believe in a God ; in respect to these, 
there may be little or no diversity of senti- 
ment ; but your opinion would be greatly 
changed to hear these men attempt an expla- 
nation of the way to be saved as revealed in 
the Gospel. As a general thing, they say 
very little on this subject, but, in all their 
teachings, aim to make the impression, that 
if one only live a moral life, and is a good 
citizen and neighbor, he need not trouble 
himself about religion. And this is a horrid, 
yea, even a damnable error. They thus lead 
men to neglect the way of salvation till they 
perish. For you must perceive that if the 
natural character of man is such as I have 
described, these instructions do not meet the 
exigencies of his case. What he needs is 
forgiveness and restoration to the favor of 
God. But there is no forgiveness proffered 
in the Gospel to those who do not seek it, 
and seek it too for the sake of Christ's vica- 
rious sufferings. 

Do you mean to be understood, said my 



106 LIGHT IN A DARK ALLEY. 

friendj that all who abide in the various 
errors you have specified, will be lost ? 

You may yourself judge of this, I replied, 
when you reflect on what God teaches, and 
may then draw your own conclusions. If 
the natural character of man be one of alien- 
ation from him, you may judge whether that 
kind of instruction which tends to shape a 
few external actions only, and does not teach 
the need of forgiveness and the restoration 
to him of the affections of the heart, can ever 
save. You might as well presume that for 
a felon to brush his coat and behave like a 
gentleman, would take away the enormity 
of the guilt which rests upon his soul. 

The Grospel lays down the exclusive truth, 
that no nnforgiven sinner can ever be saved ; 
that the impenitent, "unbelieving, and unpar- 
doned, cannot enjoy eternal life; that in 
respect to such, the claims of the law are un- 
satisfied, and that they are under condemna- 
tion, and will be cast away at last. And you 
may from this perceive what hope they have 
who neglect the way of mercy revealed in 
the Gospel. 



ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES. 107 

8. Not only must God, in any plan of 
mercy for the recovery of man, maintain 
his law, while at the same time he extends 
to sinners the sceptre of his grace, but HE 

MUST DO SOMETHING EFFECTUAL TO INSPIRE 
THEM WITH CONFIDENCE IN HIM, THAT THEY 
MAY BE LED TO ACCEPT THE PROVISIONS OF 
HIS MERCY. 

This he did when he gave up to death his 
only Son. *^For God so loved the world as 
to give his only begotten Son, that whoso- 
ever believeth in him may not perish, but 
have eternal life." ^' Will he not with him 
also freely give us all things ?" " For scarcely 
for a righteous man will one die ; but for a 
good man some will even dare to die ; but 
God commendeth his love to us in that, 
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for 
us." '^Behold what manner of love the Fa- 
ther hath bestowed upon us that we should 
be called the sons of God." 

By the gift of his own Son for sinners, 
therefore, God has done all that could rea- 
sonably be demanded of him to awaken in 
them a confiding spirit, chase away their dis- 



1G8 LIGHT I:N' A DARK ALLEY. 

trust, and regain their confidence. What 
can equal the powerful influence which the 
fact of one dying in place of another, is fitted 
to wield, for inspiring confidence in such a 
fiiend ? The appeal to the heart is irresisti- 
ble. And it is this view of Christ's suffer- 
ings in his behalf so impressively set before 
him in the Gospel, which excites the sin- 
ner to repentance, and causes his eyes to 
overflow with tears. It breaks his heart to 
think of Grod's wonderful love to him. It so 
inspires his confidence in that Saviour as to 
lead him to cast himself by faith into his 
arms, and trust his salvation wholly in him. 
What is there in the errors of those who 
neglect the Gospel, or who deny the atoning 
sacrifice, or the divinity of Christ, to waken 
in the guilty mind this confidence? There 
is no goodness in Jehovah which is not in 
perfect harmony with his justice. It was 
goodness which led him to prescribe his holy 
law as the rule of our actions ; and the same 
goodness will lead him to execute it. And 
where, then, can the man who denies the 
vicarious sacrifice of Christ find any ground 



ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES. 109 

of hope that he may be forgiven ? What 
confidence can he repose in God, separate 
from the Gospel? The views of Socinians, 
morahsts, and others of this description, tend 
to awaken in the sinner's mind no such con- 
fidence. They have no power to engage his 
affections, and fix them supremely on God. 
But when Jehovah, in the Gospel, presents 
himself to view, as giving the life's blood of 
his own Son to purchase redemption for us, 
it must and does excite the sympathies of 
the alienated and rebellious heart, and awa- 
ken its confidence in him. 

That suggests, said my friend, an explana- 
tion of what I have often felt, but never un- 
derstood, which is, a want of interest in the 
cold and chiUing pulpit inculcations of many 
w^ho lean to error. And those who preach, 
when they have coursed over the field of 
morality and can find nothing new, often 
tire of the sameness of their pulpit inculca- 
tions, and turn to some other employment. 

And it calls to mind, I replied, what was 
once said by one who had sat for a few 
mouths under such inculcations. *^ After 

to 



110 LIGHT IN A DARK ALLEY. 

all," said he, ^'orthodox preaching is the only 
interesting preaching there is." There are 
men, the beauties of whose elocution and 
style please and attract ; but if these men 
were truly imbued with the spirit of the Gos- 
pel, and employed their talents in publishing 
its plan of mercy, with warm and earnest 
hearts, nothing could exceed the interest 
which they would awaken. For there is 
nothing which is so fitted to kindle interest 
in the mind of a poor sinner, a ruined and 
wretched wanderer from God, as the affect- 
ing truth, that "Jesus Christ came into the 
world to save sinners." Nothing can exceed 
the power of this truth to touch and melt the 
heart. What multitudes has it not inter- 
ested and led to Christ ! It shows that God 
feels for the miseries of sinners, and is in 
earnest to save them ; and it thus gains their 
confidence. Under the means which he uses 
for this purpose, they know they may freely 
come to him, and trust in him. And it is 
the nature of the Gospel to produce this im- 
pression on every mind. 

4. God must not only gain the confidence 



ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES. Ill 

of those whom he would recover, but re- 
quire SUCH CONDITIONS OF MERCY AS WILL 
BE EFFECTUAL TO SECURE TO HIM THE AF- 
FECTIONS OF THEIR HEARTS. The idea is 
preposterous that man Avhile in his natural 
state, alienated in his affections from God, 
and in rebellion against him, may be for- 
given. Pardon naturally demands repent- 
ance. The heart must turn to God, penitent 
and broken on account of siu, to obtain 
mercy. It must approach him as the prodi- 
gal son in the parable approached his injured 
father. The repentance which God requires 
involves a change in the spiritual affections 
of the soul, such as our Saviour described 
under the figure of a new birth. The re- 
penting heart is a renovated and changed 
heart. And it is the view of Christ dying 
for us upon the cross, which wakens this re- 
pentance. The liolj Spirit uses the great 
facts of redemption to accomplish this spirit- 
ual change in man. Not only must a change 
exist in the affections of the mind, but con- 
fidence must be restored. The repenting 
sinner must confide in God as a loved friend. 



112 LIGHT IN A DARK ALLEY. 

He is required to do this when commanded 
to believe. The faith thus inspired is reme- 
dial. As God is in his own nature great 
and terrible, and is at such an infinite dis- 
tance from the guilty that man could never 
look up to him without terror he has sent 
his Son to teach the sinner, by dying for him, 
that he may safely confide in him. This 
view of Christ's love wakens the sinner's 
confidence. He trusts in Christ, commits 
himself to Christ, takes hold of Christ's hand, 
and is by him led back to God, to trust in 
him also. Thus, through Jesus Christ, the 
sinner's confidence in God is restored ; and 
Christ, through the power of his dying love, 
becomes the means of his spiritual recovery. 

The Gospel requisitions of repentance and 
faith, therefore, when obeyed, bring the soul 
of the alienated and conflicting sinner into a 
unison with God, and waken in it love and 
confidence toward him; audit is thus that 
the Gospel provides for man's recovery, by 
restoring his alienated affections, and kind- 
ling love to God in the heart. 

But those who overlook the fact of this 



ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES. 113 

natural alienation, do not believe such a 
spiritual recovery to be necessary ; nor do 
any of their religious syscems make provis- 
ion for such a recovery. They wholly neg- 
lect the heart, and only gloss over the life, 
esteeming the observance of outward moral- 
ity to be all that is needed for salvation. 

What you observe on this point, said my 
friend, is certainly accordant with reason ; 
but I never before had such a view of the 
nature and efficacy of the Gospel. I am one 
of those who have been living in the Dark 
Alley and by the side of neighbors who 
hold indifferently either or all the errors 
you notice ; for it never before entered my 
mind that the Grospel is such as you de- 
scribe, because I never understood its first 
principles. I cannot but acknowledge that 
I feel interested in your exposition of it, 
even though it condemns the neglect with 
which I have hitherto treated it. 

5. There is one other principle, I re- 
marked, well worthy of your notice in this 
connection. It is, that, COMING FROM A 
KIND AND BENEVOLENT GOD, THE GoSPEL 
10^ 



114 LIGHT IN A DARK ALLEY. 

NATURALLY EXTENDS ITS PROFFERS OF 
PARDON TO ALL WHO WILL ACCEPT 

the:m:. That this is true of its plan of mer- 
cy, is clear from the divine testimonies. 
"Ho, every one that thirsteth," says the 
prophet, ^'come ye to the waters, and he 
that hath no money ; come ye, buy and eat 
without money and without price." ''If 
thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up 
thy voice for understanding, if thou seekest 
her as silver and searchest for her as for hid 
treasure, then shalt thou understand the fear 
of the Lord and find the knowledge of God." 
Our Saviour said, "Come unto me, all ye 
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will 
give you rest." " In the last day, that great 
day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried. If 
any man thirst, let him come unto me and 
drink." "The Spirit and the bride say, 
Come, and let him that heareth say come, 
and let him that is athirst come, and whoso- 
ever will, let him take of the water of life 
freely." 

In these, and in innumerable other simi- 
lar testimonies, God invites a guilty world 



ELEMENTARY PRIXCIPLES. 115 

to return to him. He points out the way 
by which even pubhcans and harlots may 
come to him and be saved. Let us sujipose 
that one of high station in life has murdered 
his benefactor and friend, and is in prison, 
condemned to die. Let the moralist, the 
unitarian, the universalist, and the infidel 
come and unfold to him their various sys- 
tems, and what is there in them to interest 
his mind ? What comfort can their instruc- 
tions impart ? They teach him to be moral ; 
but he has already sinned, and how can he 
repair the evils of a long and vicious life by 
thinking that if life were prolonged, he 
would amend his sinful ways ? 

But, bring the Gospel of forgiveness 
through an atonement already made by Je- 
sus Christ, home to his understanding and 
his heart. Tell him how God^s own Son 
came from heaven on an errand of mercy, 
became incarnate, and offered up his own 
life on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for 
guilty and condemned man. Tell him how 
he once saved a dying thief. Tell him that 
*4t is a faithful saying, and worthy of all ac- 



116 LIGHT IN A DARK ALLEY. 

♦ 

ceptatioiij tliat Jesus Christ came into the 
world to save sinners, even the chief;" and 
you touch a chord of interest and sympathy 
in the breast of this guilty and lost man, 
which may bring him to true repentance, 
and lead him to cry in earnestness at 
the Saviour^s feet, ^' Jesus, Master, have 
mercy on me." ^^ Lord, I believe ; help thou 
my unbelief." 

And is not such a Gospel as this glorious 
— glorious to God, and glorious in the bless- 
ings which it confers on sinful man ? Can 
we wonder that Paul should exclaim in 
view of it, " God forbid that I should glory, 
save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ?" 
**I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, 
for it is the wisdom of God and the power 
of God unto salvation, to every one that be- 
lieveth." 

My friend made no reply. He seemed 
lost in his own meditations, and I continued: 
There is no doubt of the efficacy of this Gos- 
pel. It has power to save ; not those who 
live in the neglect of it ; not those who will 
continue to reject it; but it is the power of 



ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES. 117 

Grod unto salvation, to every one that be- 
lie veth. 

This Gospel is addressed to you. It is 
the remedy for sin, the very remedy which 
you, as a sinner, need. I invite you affec- 
tionately to consider its value to yourself, 
and to receive and rest by faith on the Sa- 
viour whom it reveals. You may confide 
in some delusion. You may receive fatal 
error as truth. But it will have no other 
effect than to leave you in your natural 
alienation from God, and ruined through 
a failure to escape from condemnation in 
the way opened before you in the Gospel. 
All the plans of human device can neither 
cure, justify, nor save you. Unless, turning to 
God in penitence, you experience his par- 
doning mercy, you cannot be saved. Your 
heart must be changed. Its deep founda- 
tions of selfishness must be torn up, and 
Christ reign in your affections as the object 
of your supreme love, or you cannot be 
saved. And it is the glory of the Gospel 
that it effects this wonderful change in the 
soul of man. 



11*8 LIGHT IX A DAEK ALLEY. 

There was a blind man once, who heard 
that Jesus of Nazareth was passing bj ; and 
no sooner did he learn this, than he cried 
out, ^^ Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy 
on me." So earnestly did he cry, that those 
around him rebuked him, that he should 
hold his peace. But how could he cease ? 
Consequences of momentous interest to him 
depended on his engaging the attention of 
Jesus Christ, and he cried yet louder still, 
"Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on 
me." Then the Saviour commanded him 
to be called, and asked him, "What wilt 
thou that I should do unto y©u?" And he 
said, " Lord, that my eyes might be opened." 
And Jesus touched his eyes, and imme- 
diately he received sight. So may you, in 
your moral blindness, present yourself be- 
fore Christ; so may you plead for mercy; 
so may you bring your burden of sorrow and 
of sin, and lay it at the Saviour's feet ; and 
looking upon him by faith, you may hear 
him say, "Go thy way; thy faith hath saved 
thee ; go in peace." 



C^a^tK i^intl^. 



AS TO THE WAY IN WHICH THE GOSPEL OPERATES TO 
REMOVE THE MORAL BLINDNESS AND EFFECT THE SPIR- 
ITUAL RECOVERY OF MAN. 

If the natural state of man is one of alien- 
ation from Grod, and the Gospel is the rem- 
edy for this evil, it must produce effects 
corresponding to the nature of the disease. 
No scheme of religion can justly claim to be 
regarded as the Gospel, which does not make 
adequate provision for man's spiritual recov- 
ery; and any scheme professing to have 
come from heaven, which does not secure in 
him a change of his governing affection, and 
a reconciliation in heart to God, bears in 
itself the evidence of its falsehood. It is the 
glory of the Gospel that it is adapted to our 
spiritual necessities, and does for us all that 



120 LIGHT IX A DARK ALLEY. 

is required for our entire restoration to God. 
It kindles love to him in the alienated soul, 
and so encourages the growth of this love as 
to effect an entire change in the spiritual 
affections of the mind, conforming it to the 
Divine image. 

They who fail to gain a clear and scriptu- 
ral ^iew of man's moral degeneracy, also fail 
to comprehend the nature of the Gospel. 
Many have no consistent and scriptural view 
of it on this very account. They are in 
the dark as to their natural character, and 
discern no necessity, therefore, for that re- 
pentance and faith which the Gospel enjoins 
as the means of salvation. K they had cor- 
rect views on the subject of their own natu- 
ral character, it would prepare the way for 
the light of truth to irradiate their minds. 
The consciousness of their need would cause 
them to open their eyes on the excellence 
of the Gospel, and the nature of its recover- 
ing gTace. 

I admit, said my friend,, that my views of 
this subject are clearer than they have ever 
before been. It is evident that the Gospel 



RECL AIMING POWER OF TRUTH 121 

must provide means to overcome the su- 
premely selfish affections of the sinner's 
mind and change them to love, or it will 
prove a failure ; and also that man cannot 
be restored to holiness and bliss by any 
other agency than that which will spiritually 
renovate his heart, and bring him into a 
state of love to God, and of holy obedience. 
But how is this great work effected ? 

It is indeed clear, I replied, that the sin- 
ner's heart must be changed ; and it is the 
object of the Gospel not only to teach the 
necessity of this change, but how it is pro- 
duced. There are many forms of expression 
which directly or by implication teach this. 
This change is included in repentance, which 
is enjoined throughout the sacred Scriptures, 
and is made obligatory upon the whole apos- 
tate race. "God now commandeth all men 
every where to repent." "Except ye re- 
pent, said Christ, ye shall all likewise perish." 
"And that repentance and remission of sins 
might be preached." The same duty was 
equally inculcated under the old dispensa- 
tion. "Let the wicked forsake his ways 
11 



122 LIGHT IX A DARK ALLEY. 

and the unrigliteous man his tlionglits, and 
let him turn imto the Lord, and he will have 
mercy on him; and nnto our God, and he 
will abundantly pardon." ^'Eepent, turn 
yourselves from all your transgressions, so 
iniquity shall not be your ruin." 

This duty is enjoined upon all men, in 
view of the fact that they are sinners. 
" For all have sinned and come short of the 
glory of God." In coming into the world to 
save sinners, Jesus Christ prescribed repent- 
ance as the means of their forgiveness. It 
is therefore a duty obligatory on all men. 

But repentance, in its own nature, includes 
a turning from sin to God, both in heart and 
life. It therefore involves the very change 
in the affections of the mind already de- 
scribed. No man can repent of the sin of 
loving himself supremely, and yet continue 
under the influence of this love ; or the sin 
of not loving God, and yet continue not to 
love him. And as it is the great object of 
the Gospel to call men to repentance, and 
teach them how this repentance may be 
available to their salvation ; so, it is its ob- 



RECLAIMING POWER OF TRUTH. 123 

ject to provide for the change in the sinner's 
heart which is included in repentance, and 
fit him for spiritual enjoyment with God in 
heaven. 

The same spiritual change is involved in 
the Gospel requisition of faith. The com- 
mand of Jesus Christ is, ^'Believe;" *^he 
that belie veth shall be saved." ^' Believe in 
the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be 
saved." Faith is the confidence of the soul 
reposed in Jesus Christ as one supremely 
loved ; and it involves a state of mind oppo- 
site to that in which supreme love of self 
reigns as the governing motive. 

But how do you show, said my friend, 
that faith includes the spiritual change in 
man which you have described? I my- 
self believe in Jesus Christ, but yet am con- 
scious of no such change. 

Very true, I replied. You may believe in 
him in various senses, and yet not have true 
faith. You may believe that there was such 
a person on earth as Jesus Christ, that he was 
a good man, that he came into the world to 
save sinners, and will save all who come to 



124 LIGHT IN A DARK ALLEY. 

liim ; and yet, this faith may be only of the 
head, and not of the heart, and not that kind 
of faith which expresses the confidence of the 
soul reposed in him as one supremely loved, 
which only is true faith, and the substance 
of all true piety. 

He who loves himself supremely, natu- 
rally distrusts the Son of God, as he does the 
Father ; and this distrust can give place to 
supreme confidence only through a radical 
change of heart. In requiring faith in Jesus 
Christ, the Gospel demands the renunciation 
of this spirit of distrust, and a new spirit of 
confidence to assume its place. And how 
can the soul repose by faith, or, in other 
words, commit itself, with all its interests, 
into the hands of one whom it distrusts? 
It cannot. And yet faith is trusting in 
Christ as a Saviour supremely loved. The 
change from enmity to love, is therefore 
included as essential to the exercise of 
faith. He who believes in Christ turns to 
him in the spirit of true repentance, and 
loves and obeys him. Where faith reigns 



RECLAIMING POWER OF TRUTH. 125 

in the soul, therefore, a new spiritual life 
has already commenced. 

The same changed affections are also des- 
cribed by other language equally appropri- 
ate. Thus, when our Saviour says, '' Except 
a man be born again, he cannot see the 
kingdom of God," he conveys to us the fact 
that the spiritual change in the soul of man 
must be as great as it would be in his physi- 
cal state, were he to be born into a new 
world. It is a change connected with the 
introduction of the soul into the spiritual 
kingdom of God ; and this must involve a 
change in its supreme and governing motive, 
or its object of supreme affection. 

But how, said my friend, does the Gospel 
produce this change in the heart of revolted 
man ? How does it restore in his soul the 
principle of supreme love lost in the apos- 
tasy ? Will you please illustrate this point, 
for my mind is utterly in the dark respect- 
ing it ? 

Before proceeding to comply with your 
request, I said, it is important to gain a dis- 
tinct view of the point to be illustrated, and 
11^ 



126 LIGHT I]S- A DARK ALLEY. 

how it is regarded in the sacred Scriptures. 
Do these, in fact, recognize a real distinc- 
tion in men, grounded on a difference in 
their spiritual state ? What do they testify 
on this point ? Clearly, that there is such a 
distinction. They teach that there is a wide 
difference between those who love God, and 
those who do not ; those who obey his laws, 
and those who disregard them; those who 
delight in God and love the duties of his 
religion, and those who practically say unto 
him, *^ Depart from us, for we desire not the 
knowledge of thy ways." That class of 
persons who love the duties of his religion, 
who not only in form, but in heart worship 
God, and who adopt his law as the rule of 
life, and aim to please him as the great end 
of their being, show that they are spiritually 
different from those who live to themselves 
only, and use the world as the instrument 
of their happiness, regardless of their Crea- 
tor. This distinction is acknowledged 
throughout the sacred Scriptures, and is va- 
riously expressed. Thus we are taught that 
there is a wide moral difference between the 



RECLAIMING- POWER OF TRUTH. 127 

righteons and the wicked ; they who serve 
Grod, and they who serve him not ; the pen- 
itent and impenitent ; the believing and the 
unbelieving ; the wise and the foolish ; the 
faithful and the unfaithful ; the sheep and 
the goats ; the wheat and the tares ; the re- 
deemed and the condemned; the saved and 
the lost ; they that are in Christ, and they 
that are out of him ; the carnal and the 
spiritual mind; the saint and the sinner. 
These expressions all point out the two 
great classes into which the human family is 
divided. The difference between them ari- 
ses from their different characters as the 
friends or enemies of Grod ; those who su- 
premely love him, and those who love him 
not. 

I admit the fact, said my friend, that the 
Bible makes this distinction, and appears 
to base it on a real difference in the state of 
the heart ; and I understand you to account 
for this difference, by maintaining that su- 
preme love to God is restored to the heart 
of one of these classes, in place of the supreme 



128 LIGHT IN A DAKK ALLEY. 

love of self, wliicli once' reigned there. Am 
I correct in my conjecture ? 

Yon are : for you must perceive that the 
law demands love to God and to man ; and 
the Gospel aims to restore this love to the 
alienated heart, as the first step to the ac- 
quisition of that perfect holiness in which 
consists man's entire restoration from the 
apostasy. Supreme love fills the soul on its 
conversion to God; perfect love is the 
crowning act of redemption, and is a state in 
which the soul is completely delivered from 
the power and curse of sin, and enters on its 
glorious and everlasting rest. 

It is strange, said my friend, that I never 
before perceived this. Faith, . repentance, 
a new heart, ever seemed to me to be 
an unmeaning jumble, which the clearest 
discernment could not penetrate ; but now 
I think I begin to see them in a very 
different light, as provisions of the Gospel 
adapted to the necessities of ruined man. 

Not so very strange, was my reply, if we 
consider in what way you have heretofore 
studied these truths. You would not now 



KECLAIMINa POWER OF TRUTH. 129 

have conipreliended their nature and ex- 
cellence, had we not commenced with th$ 
simple truth of human apostasy, in order to 
develop the Grospel as an adequate remedy 
for the evils thus introduced into the world. 
Most men strive to acquire a knowledge of 
the Grospel very much as an old school- 
mate once attempted to acquire arithmetic. 
He had never studied it before, but appeared 
to busy himself with his book and slate as 
if he were very studious, when the teacher 
happened to look over him, and was sur- 
prised to see him working at sums under the 
rule of proportion. 

John, said he, what are you about ? 

I thought, said John, that I would begin 
here, with the class of my own age, and go 
through with them, and afterward finish up 
the first part of the book. 

But, said the teacher, do you understand 
the ground rules, numeration, addition, sub- 
traction, multiplication and division ? 

No, said John, I design to learn them af- 
terward. 

It is precisely so in respect to religion. 



130 LIGHT IN A DARK ALLEY. 

Many begin in the midst of a complicated 
system, and, because they cannot understand 
it, pronounce the whole to be a j umble of 
inconsistencies ; when, if they had begun 
with the simple elements of truth, and taken 
them in their natural order, they would have 
avoided the difficulties which now confuse 
them. 

If you will keep in mind the great distinc- 
tion pointed out in the moral state of man- 
kind, you will be enabled to comprehend 
more readily the point to be illustrated, 
which is the way in which God through the 
Gospel produces a change in the supreme 
and governing motive of the mind, and in 
its object of supreme affection; thus intro- 
ducing into the soul a holy principle whose 
tendency is to recover it from the apostasy 
and effect its entire restoration to God. 

The first point at which the Gospel aims, 
in this w^ork of moral renovation, is to 
awaken in the soul conviction of sin. No 
spiritual change can be effected in that heart 
which is disposed to justify itself, and to feel 
that it is already right with God. And it is 



RECLAIMIKG- POWER OF TRUTH. 131 

from not being conscious of their own spir- 
itual degeneracy, tbat all the admonitions 
and calls to repentance, and invitations of 
mercy in the Gospel, produce so little im- 
pression on the great mass of the hearers of 
the word. 

The first step to escape the evil of sin is 
to be sensible of that evil. One must feel 
that he is lost, or he will not endeavor to be 
saved. Not only must the fact of his moral 
ruin, but the just ground of his condemna- 
tion be distinctly recognized, that his en- 
deavors to escape may receive a right direc- 
tion. 

The means which the Holy Spirit uses to 
convince of sin, are, to set forth to man 
the great facts of the apostasy, and to show 
him the spiritual state of his own heart 
through the precepts, examples, and requi- 
sitions of the sacred Scriptures revealed for 
this purpose. The Gospel not only sets up 
the law of God as holy and immutable in 
its nature, but illustrates its spirituality and 
extent in such a way as to show the sinner 
the nature of his departures from God. It 



132 LIGHT IK A DAKK ALLEY. 

arrays the law before tlie guilty mind, and 
threatens its penalty against all who fail 
to escape from its condemning sentence, 
through the Saviour. It thus uses the law 
as a schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ. 

That God is determined to maintain his 
righteous law, is evident from the teachings 
of the sacred Scriptures. If he could have 
cast it aside, Christ would not have suffered 
under it. He gave his only Son up to death 
to provide an atoning sacrifice, and to sus- 
tain the law as just, that he might confer a 
free forgiveness on all who trust in this 
Saviour. The law, as thus sustained, drives 
the sinner from all refuge in himself, and 
shows him the need of forgiveness, and of 
justification in another way than by his own 
works of righteousness. When it produces 
its appropriate effect, it leads one to despair 
of mercy on strictly legal principles. The law 
recognizes no mercy. The divine goodness 
establishing it, recognizes no such principle. 
The natural effect of law, therefore, on the 
disobedient is to deliver him over to the 
curse. The soul that sinneth, it shall die, 



RECLAIMING POWER OF TRUTH. 133 

is the proclamation which, it makes to the 
world. 

When the Holy Spirit, through the law, 
acquaints the sinner with his moral ruin, he 
also shows him the justice of his condem- 
nation. He arrays before him God the law- 
giver as infinitely holy, just, and good, and 
shows him that, in the sins of his past life, 
he has offended this good being, and deserves 
only to be cast away. It is the tendency of 
conviction thus to impress the mind with 
the sin of loving one's self supremely, and 
living only to one's self; and to make the 
sinner sensible of his lost condition. 

But were this all, it would be insufficient. 
Man might know himself to be lost, and 
justly condemned for his sin ; he might feel 
all the agonies of this conviction, and yet 
reach no other state than one of despair, 
were it not for other principles revealed in 
the Gospel by which the Holy Spirit lays 
hold of the affections of this despairing mind, 
and turns them into a new channel. 

The law which is sustained as holy, just, 
and good, in its legitimate effect on the sin- 
12 



134 LIGHT IN A DARK ALLEY. 

ner, would inevitably destroy him. But tlie 
Gospel teaclies that Christ has borne its pen- 
alty for those who will come to him, and it 
proffers free forgiveness, for his sake, to all 
who will trust in him. Encouraged by the 
invitations of mercy in the Gospel, the sinner 
looks to Christ. And no sooner does he 
behold the Son of God dying for him, and 
learn the application of this sacrifice to his 
own spiritual deliverance, than the good- 
ness thus displayed toward him melts his 
heart. He looks upon the sacrifice of the 
cross, and, while he gazes npon that won- 
derful scene, the tears start in his eyes and 
flow down his cheeks. The supreme love 
of self in the soul yields to the motives of 
heavenly benevolence presented to view in 
Christ. His heart is broken and changed ; 
turning in repentance unto this Saviour, 
he gives himself away to him, and a new 
and holy affection rises into being in place 
of that which before held possession. He 
now feels that he loves Christ ; that he loves 
him more than he loves himself. He loves 
him so much that he cheerfully commits his 



RECLAIMING POWER OF TRUTH. ]35 

soul and body, his property and life, and his 
immortal destiny all into his hands. This is 
supreme love. It rises toward Christ, and is 
superior to the love he has for any other 
object, or all other objects in the universe. 
He loves Christ supremely, and yields him- 
self, with all his active powers, into subjec- 
tion to him. The rebel is won; the dis- 
trustful enemy has become a confiding friend. 
Thus changed in his affections toward 
Christ, the conflict is ended. The rebelling 
heart is reconciled to him ; and the Saviour 
becomes the medium of transferring its af- 
fections to God. In loving the Son, who is 
divine, the sinner loves the Father also ; for 
both have the same attributes and the same 
divinity. The Son having thus gained the 
confidence of the sinner by dying for him 
on the cross, as mediator, leads him back to 
God, and through the virtue of his own 
blood gains for him acceptance. In conse- 
quence of the sinner'^ faith in Christ, the 
curse is removed from him, having been 
transferred to Christ himself. Jesus Christ 
is thus said to have borne the punishment 



136 LIGHT IN A DAEK ALLEY. 

of his sins, to have died for him ; to have 
''redeemed him from the curse of the law, 
having been made a curse for him." The 
sinner thus, through faith, avails himself 
of the Saviour's sufferings and death, as 
the ground of his own deliverance, Christ, 
though innocent, having endured for him 
that punishment which the sinner himself 
deserved to experience. And in view of 
Christ as thus standing in the place of the 
sinner and dying for him, the sinner gives 
him his heart, as worthy of his confidence 
and supreme love. 

Loving Christ, he comes into a new moral 
state, and into new relations. '' Old things 
are passed away, all things are become new." 
He is born again. Eeconciliation to God is 
thus effected. Supreme love to Grod is thus 
restored to his bosom. Distrust yields to 
faith, and the reign of sin to that of holi- 
ness. 

The first effect of love is to bring the soul 
with all its affections, and the body with all 
its powers, into subordination to Christ. It 
thus kindles the spirit of obedience in place 



RECL AIMING POWER OF TRUTH. 137 

of that of disobedience, which reigned be- 
fore ; and this bears the soul on in the path 
of hohness till it attains complete sanctifica- 
tion. Not that it here in this world attains 
it, for while the sinful body remains it 
continually tends to lead the soul astray. 
But the tendencies from this source are all 
removed by death. The body, purified by 
the grave, will be raised in the likeness of 
Christ, and the soul, sanctified through 
grace and reunited to the body, will then 
reach a state of perfect holiness and felicity. 
It will rise to a more blessed state than was 
lost through Adam, and will enjoy with the 
saints an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, 
and that fadeth not away. 

Here then, under the proper influences of 
grace, the body is dead because of sin. It 
tends to corruption. But the spirit is life 
because of righteousness. It attains life 
through Christ's justifying righteousness. It 
is thus that the influence of the Gospel is 
directed to recover lost man. Its direct 
power is on the heart to mould its affections 
into a new and holy state ; and to restore in 
12^ 



138 LIGHT IJT A DARK ALLEY. 

it tlie spiritual image of God lost in the 
apostasy. 

But what impression do the various opin- 
ions of those who treat the Gospel with neg- 
lect exert upon it ? Not a softening influ- 
ence, but the reverse. All those forms of 
error which have been noticed, w^hich 
some claim to be the Gospel, have no other 
effect than to render men indifferent to the 
spiritual duties of religion, and harden them 
in unbelief. They have no power, either 
singly or combined, to transfer the heart 
with its affections over to God. It is the 
Gospel only which has this power, and it is 
evident, therefore, that these do not repre- 
sent the Gospel, for they are powerless. 



NATURAL BLINDNESS AS TO SPIRITUAL THINGS INDICATIVE 
OF one's SPIRITUAL STATE. 

Here my friend seemed puzzled what to 
advance next. At length he said, This is 
indeed light in a dark place, so far as I am 
concerned. Living in the Dark Alley which 
yon have described, by the side of those as 
inconsiderate and erroneous as myself, I had 
no suspicion that I knew so little of my own 
heart. How did it happen, think you, that 
I never saw these things in this light be- 
fore ? Why has the Gospel always been so 
dark to me ? 

Paul answers your inquiry, I replied, 
where he says, " If our Gospel be hid, it is 
hid to them that are lost, in whom the God 
of this world hath blinded the minds of 



140 LIGHT IN A DARK ALLEY. 

them that believe not, lest the light of the 
glorious G-ospel of Christ, who is the image 
of God, should shine unto them." The 
reason here assigned is founded in the nat- 
ural state of the heart, as alienated from 
G-od; and although you may be enlightened 
in some respects into the nature of the Gos- 
pel, yet, even now, you know not what is 
love to God, nor can you ever know till you 
shall feel it. You are without the threshold 
of the spiritual kingdom of God, and cannot 
know what the true feelings of the Christian 
are till you shall enter in. 

Why, said my friend, am I not excusable 
then for my ignorance ? 

Because, I replied, no man is excusable 
for the consequences of his own neglect, any 
more than for the sinful negligence itself. 
If you are without the spiritual kingdom of 
God, yet the door is open before you, and 
has ever been. You may come to Christ 
through faith, and thus learn what it is to 
love him. And the obligation rests on 
you to press away from the state of condem- 



MORAL BLINDNESS. 141 

nation in whicli you are, into the way of 
eternal life throui^h Christ. 

You may think that tha mystery in which 
religion vails itself, is an ample excuse for 
your neglecting it. What have I to do, you 
may ask, with a subject which is so unfath- 
omable to my comprehension, and which, it 
is acknowledged, that the mightiest intellect 
is, of itself, u.nable to grasp ? But you are 
not accustomed, in this summary way, to 
dismiss other subjects which make their ap- 
peal to your interest. If you were born 
blind, would you reject the offer of medical 
skill because you could not, in your blind- 
ness, comprehend the nature of vision ? Or 
if the kingdom of God should descend from 
heaven, like the. New Jerusalem, audit should 
be credibly attested as beautiful, and you 
should hear of its golden streets, its jewelled 
gates, its glorious illumination, and the bliss 
of its deathless inhabitants, would you refuse 
to enter it, when invited, because you could 
not, while without the gates, enjoy a full 
comprehension of its magnificence ? Would 
not your unbelief be justly rebuked by the 



142 LIGHT m A DAEK ALLEY. 

invitation to come and see for yourself, and 
behold the place whose existence you are 
disposed to question? 

What if you have not known, and are 
now unable to comprehend the spiritual 
emotions of the renovated heart; are you 
therefore excusable for neglecting to seek 
that heart ? Eeligion is a mystery to you, 
because you have not experienced it ; and 
you are incredulous respecting the Gospel, 
because you have never perceived its truth 
in the experience of its saving power on 
your own heart. No, you know nothing of 
all this. The spiritual world is all dark to 
you, and it is because you are without. You 
are blinded to it, because you are lost to it. 
It is the same to you as if there were no Gos- 
pel, for you do not avail yourself of it as the 
only means by which to enter the kingdom 
of God. It is hidden from you because you 
are lost. 

But your living in a dark alley will not 
justify your neglect to enter the path of life 
to which you are invited, and to press on in 
the strait and narrow way to heaven. You 
need not live thus. You may emerge from 



MORAL BLINDNESS. 143 

this darkness into the light. And it depends 
on the course you pursue whether j^ou shall 
ever experience the power of recovering 
grace. On you the sacred Scriptures cast 
the responsibility. " If thou art wise, thou 
shalt be wise for thyself; but if thou scornest, 
thou alone shalt bear it." They hinge your 
salvation on your turning in true repentance 
unto Grod, believing in Jesus, and you cannot 
throw off the responsibility which this in- 
volves. You must meet it. 

If you have made a discovery of your er- 
ror, do not hesitate to abandon it. No man 
who prizes the friendship of God should ever 
be held, by pride of opinion, to a course of. 
religious belief which he is conscious is wrong. 
It is the demand both of reason and of Grod, 
that you should at once abandon the errors 
of your life, and put yourself under the 
guid'ance of truth. There is a way out of 
the dark alley, and through which you may 
return to God from whom you have wan- 
dered. Will you not choose that waj, and 
press on in that path, that you perish not in 
the darkness, and amid the delusion of fatal 
error ? 



THE STATE OF MIND WHICH LEADS ONE TO NEGLECT THE 
GOSPEL, AND TO FRAME EXCUSES FOR SO DOING. 

AversiojST to tlie duties which. God re- 
quires is the natural feeling of every mind 
not yet reconciled to him; and this it is 
which occasions the neglect of his plan of 
mercy, revealed through Jesus Christ. Our 
Saviour intimated this when he said, " Ye 
will not come unto me that ye might have 
life." The mind whose affections are preoc- 
cupied with the world, will not yield itself 
to Grod, because, in its moral feelings, it is 
averse to his holy supremacy. Yet it is not 
often that we discover one honest enough to 
avow this as the real difficulty. Men gen- 
erally wish to cloak this aversion to God 
from the knowledge even of their own 



CAUSE OF NEGLECT. 145 

minds ; and they strive to do it by setting 
Tip some excuse for their disobedience, in- 
volving, to themselves, less responsibility. 
Hence the numerous errors in belief of those 
who live in neglect of the Gospel. These 
are only excuses urged in justification of 
their conduct. Their name is legion; and 
they often occupy the mind in such a way 
as to lead one to step from one position into 
another, as impelled by the truth ; and, as 
the wheel turns round, to take other steps, 
till he presently finds himself in the same 
position he was in before, and prepared again 
to renew the process. 

He who views the religious errors of this 
class of men in any other light than as ex- 
cuses for disobedience, sadly mistakes their 
nature. If we should write down the vari- 
ous opinions expressed as reasons for treat- 
ing the Gospel with neglect which daily fall 
from the lips of our fellow-men, we should 
soon find that we had collected a curious 
medley of contradictory and absurd proposi- 
tions, in none of which could we discover 
the elements of truth. The human mind, in 
13 



146 LIGHT I^" A DARK ALLEY. 

its degeneracy, has its wit stimulated to 
avoid the truth, rather than to devise the 
easiest and best method for its acceptance. 
It pleases itself with the hope of being able 
to make out a vindication of its errors. It 
exerts itself in every possible way to free 
itself from its responsibilities to God, by es- 
tablishing error in place of truth. 

A man who is averse to a given course, 
will be stimulated to invent excuses in justi- 
fication of his conduct in neglecting to pur- 
sue it. There is no bound to the versatility 
of human genius thus inspired. In the de- 
sire to invent reasons to excuse disobedience 
to God, we may discover the fountain of 
most of the religious errors which infest the 
world, and hinder the progress of truth. 

No man would have ever seriously main- 
tained the opinion that all mankind will 
finally be saved, had it not been to excuse 
his neglect of the Gospel. And most effectual 
is it to accomplish the desired end ; for who 
that receives this opinion as truth, ever 
troubles himself further about religion, than 
merely to confirm himself in this error? 



CAUSE OF NEGLECT. 147 

He studies the Bible for no other purpose. 
Here, in this opinion, centres all his religion. 
And it is a poor religion indeed. It exerts 
no influence upon the heart to reclaim it. 
It throws no restraint upon the life. It 
never brings one in repentance unto God, 
never kindles in him the desire of prayer, 
never prevents him from the comnyssion of 
any sin which his heart covets. But it jus- 
tifies him, he thinks, in his habitual neglect 
of the duties of spiritual religion. It teaches 
that he who neglects the Gospel is as safe 
and happy after death as he who obeys it ; 
he who rejects Christ, as he who accepts 
him; thus shov/ing that if the Gospel be 
true, Universalism must be false ; and that it 
is an error invented by the arch enemy of 
the race to deceive man; a mere excuse for 
the wilful neglect with which multitudes 
treat the Gospel. 

In its practical tendencies, Socinianism is 
the same ; and so is infidelity. The belief 
of the moralist, fatalist, and nothingist, is of 
the same class. It is an invention of error 
designed for the justification of a neglect to 



148 LIGHT IN A DAllK ALLEY. 

come to Christ. Errors the most numerous 
spring from this prolific source. Every man 
has his opinion to which he resorts for justi- 
fication, when inquired of why he lives in 
neglect of the Gospel. 

Of the same kind are numerous excuses 
ever on the hps of men. One offers the 
faults of Christians in justification of the 
neglect of rehgion; another his want of a 
favorable opportunity to give it his atten- 
tion ; another the views he entertains of his 
own inability, and the necessity of his re- 
maining impenitent; another proffers his 
future intention in excuse for present diso- 
bedience. These are the several shields by 
which those who neglect religion aim to 
ward off the arrows of truth. The secret 
ground of these excuses is aversion of heart 
to the duties which Grod requires. 

This is sufficient to account for all the ex- 
cuses and errors which the inventive genius 
of man has ever wrought out in vindication 
of his neglect of duty. Why need we sev- 
erally refute them ? The demolition of one 
defence will only open the way for the in- 



CAUSE OF NEGLECT. 149 

troduction of anotlier. If we should fairly 
meet and exjpose the falsity of one excuse, 
it would not convert the heart ; it would 
only lead one to adopt a new error, and 
more carefully justify himself in its belief. 
The human mind is so constituted as to seek, 
in its depravity, this method to repel convic- 
tion. It is the natural aversion of the heart 
to Grod which prompts the invention of such 
errors. No man would credit them for a 
moment, if he loved Grod. If the heart 
should be converted and cease its aversion 
to Jehovah, it would not be necessary to re- 
fute them ; they would fall of themselves. 

So changed in conversion does the mind 
become, as no longer to desire or seek an 
excuse for disobedience ; and, consequently, 
the falsity of all such excuses becomes at 
once apparent. This shows that they have 
their origin in prejudice, not in reason ; for 
when this is removed they vanish. 

Why do you treat the Grospel with neg- 
lect ? Is it not because you dislike the du- 
ties which it commands ? K you loved God, 
you would also love the Gospel of his Son. 
13^ 



150 LIGHT IN A DAEK ALLEY. 

K yon lived in obedience to him, you would 
also live in obedience to Jesus Christ. K 
you delighted in God, you would also delight 
in pleasing him. You would find your 
chief happiness in spiritual communion with 
your Father in heaven. 

But, in none of these things are you con- 
scious of finding pleasure, nor in God him- 
self as a holy being. You more naturally 
turn to the world for your happiness, than 
to God. You love the world more than him. 
And this love of the world which is supreme, 
renders you averse to him. Choosing between 
these moral opposites, you select the world 
as the source of more pleasure to yourself 
than God; and because you do not love 
him, you strive to excuse and justify your 
neglect. Your choice is voluntary. Your 
neglect of the Gospel is voluntary. Your 
sacrifice of heaven to the world is volun- 
tary. 

When an intelligent mind capable of 
choosing selects a given course because He 
prefers it, he assumes the responsibility of 
the choice. This is the case of him who 



CAUSE OF NEGLECT. 151 

neglects tlie Gospel. He may try to lay the 
blame on others ; he may strive to inculpate 
God, his ministers, or his church in the 
blame ; but it rests on himself only. It is 
his own aversion of heart to religion which 
is the occasion of his neglect; and where 
this neglect is, there is in the eye of God a 
wicked and rebellious heart. 

If your heart were right toward him, this 
neglect would give place to holy devotion. 
You could not live in this neglect and yet 
be a converted man, a true Christian. It 
would be, in the nature of things, impossi- 
ble. You could not live as a neglecter of 
religion and yet supremely love God. 

Take all the excuses you have ever 
framed, all the errors on which you have 
attempted to justify your neglect, and lay 
them aside, for they are worthless. Lay 
them all aside and view the naked truth, 
that you must cease this neglect of heaven's 
mercy, and that speedily, or it will be with- 
drawn from you forever. 

It is painful beyond endurance to a sensi- 
tive mind to reflect, that all the neglect of 



152 LIGHT IN A DARK ALLEY. 

the Gospel wliicli exists around liim, springs 
from a heart averse to God. What crowds 
are passing along the broad way that lead- 
eth to destruction, without the shadow of an 
excuse for the manner in which they treat 
God, and the plan of his mercy published to 
the world! All, all are without excuse. 
And for what is this sacrifice of hope and 
heaven made ? Ask the man of the world. 
Ask him who lives only to amass riches. 
Ask the votary of pleasure. Ask the disap- 
pointed and miserable, for what they choose 
to forego eternal happiness, everlasting joys? 

O why do these neglect the Gospel? 
Why do they persist in the darkness of a 
depraved mind, when the glorious light of 
heaven streams into this darkness, but 
they will not behold it, will not come to the 
light? Eternal blessedness with God in 
heaven, is the fruit of obedience to the Gos- 
pel. Deliverance from sin and all its 
wretched consequences, in this world and 
the next, is included in this gift. 

Do you ask, how you must possess your- 
self of it ? You must come to Jesus Christ 



CAUSE OF NEGLECT. 153 

in true penitence, and with humble faith, 
yielding yourself to him, and trusting in him 
alone for salvation. And if you thus come, 
you shall not be disappointed. Nothing 
else can save you. If you continue to neg- 
lect the Grospel, you must perish. You will 
fail of the blessings which it proffers. You 
will be left in the same state of guilt and 
ruin as you would have been had no plan 
of mercy ever been published to the world. 
You will continue to reject the Son of Grod 
who came to redeem you. And when you 
shall behold him upon the throne of judg- 
ment, nothing can save you from the over- 
powering conviction of having refused to 
listen to his invitation when he calls, and 
to yield to the influences of his blessed Spirit, 
which move with a reclaiming power upon 
the heart. 



TRUTH ILLUSTRATED BY EXAMPLE. 

There was one, well known to me, wlio 
lived in the habitual neglect of religion. I 
do not remember having ever seen him with- 
in a church, though his family attended. In- 
temperate in early life, he had abandoned 
the use of intoxicating drink, and in a few 
years, by a course of industry, had amassed 
a considerable property. He seemed to re- 
gard his strict abstinence as religion enough 
for him, and trusted in it as a moral virtue, 
on which he might safely rest the hope of a 
blessed immortality. 

My interest naturally became awakened in 
one who stood before the world so firm in 
his adherence to principle, amid the tempta- 
tions to which he was exposed ; and I often 
threw myself in his way, hoping, by cour- 



TRUTH ILLUSTRATED, 155 

teoiis treatment, to gain his confidence, that 
I might use the influence thus acquired over 
him, for his good. For a long time no fa- 
vorable opportunity presented itself to con- 
verse freely with him ; and when there oc- 
curred such an one, I found that he was 
obdurate. He appeared to have no settled 
religious opinions. Sometimes he inclined 
to a belief in universal salvation, and some- 
times to a denial of the truth and inspiration 
of the sacred Scriptures. Whatever were 
his views on the subject of religion, he had, 
all his life, lived in the practical neglect of 
the Gospel. JSTor did he ever put himself in 
the way of gaining scriptural information. 

As often happens, when most busied in 
the world, he was taken ill with a severe 
cold, which settled down into the consump- 
tion, of which, after lingering more than a 
year, he died. Like others afflicted with a 
pulmonary disease, he was cheered with the 
hope of a speedy recovery, and would not 
believe himself to be in danger. I frequent- 
ly visited him, and endeavored to lead his 
thoughts to the subject of religion. But 



156 LIGHT IN A DARK ALLEY. 

there were great obstacles in the way of ma- 
king an impression on his mind. Extremely 
ignorant of his natural character as a sinner, 
he confided, apparently, in the rectitude of 
his past life, and especially in the good work 
of his reformation from the life of an inebri- 
ate. He was destitute of all proper ac- 
quaintance with the Gospel. He neither 
felt his need of mercy, nor perceived why 
the Grospel is necessary to the recovery of 
fallen man. 

When the conversation was directed to 
any important practical truth, he would 
course off into some erroneous opinion ; and 
it was very difficult to detain his attention 
loug enough at any one point to meet and 
overthrow his error. It became necessary 
to commence with instruction in the sim- 
ple elements of religious knowledge, and to 
lead his mind on from one point to another, 
attacking the strongholds of error, not di- 
rectly, but by advancing the truth in respect 
to the peculiar error which was before his 
mind. 

It was pleasing to observe, that as one 



TEUTH ILLUSTRATED. 157 

point after another of his subterfuges was 
torn away, and truth began to gain a lodg- 
ment in his intellect, how conviction seemed 
to follow. He grew more and more inter- 
ested in the explanations of religion ; and, 
at the same time, felt more uneasy lest he 
should presently have left no foundation of 
hope. He was willing to read, and I left 
with him two works, which he read atten- 
tively; one, designed to cure him of his 
skepticism, and the other, to lead him to 
Jesus Christ. These had a perceptible good 
effect. 

It was curious to mark the honesty with 
which he would advance his opinions, and 
how strongly he would assert his claims to 
divine acceptance on account of his own 
morality; not, however, with a boastful 
spirit, but as one who felt that this was his 
rock. On one occasion, I pressed upon him 
the claims of God and the duties of spiritual 
religion. He replied, "Why, sir, I have 
never done any thing that is bad, except 
perhaps to swear a little ;" and then he hes- 
itated. His whole past life flashed before 
14 



158 LIGHT IN A DAEK ALLEY. 

his mind, and lie finished the sentence in a 
remarkable manner : — ^' Except," said he, 
^' to swear a little, to profane the holy Sa,b- 

bath, and to do every thing that is 

bad," he added, as if one sin had deliberate- 
ly forced itself upon his mind after another, 
till he found it useless to strive to justify 
himself, and finally acknowledged his whole 
life to have been sinful. He saw that he 
had lived in habitual disobedience to Grod. 
This confident hope founded on his own 
goodness, had arisen from ignorance of his 
true character, and it was now severely sha- 
ken. When the divine law in its spiritual- 
ity and power was applied to his conscience, 
and he saw how great had been his defection 
from Grod, he could say with Paul, ^'I was 
alive without the law once, but when the 
commandment came sin revived, and I 
died." 

From this period he became deeply in 
earnest to secure his own salvation. It was 
easy to lead his thoughts to Christ, and a 
pleasure to impart instruction. At times, 
he seemed to have found the Saviour ; but his 



TRUTH ILLUSTRATED. • 159 

mind was not fully at rest. During Ms ex- 
treme anxiety for himself, on one occasion, 
when I led his devotions in prayer, he 
seemed to make a full and unreserved sur- 
render of himself, by faith, to Grod. 

Eeturning after a temporary absence, I 
found him in the enjoyment of a sweet 
peace, and trusting with implicit faith in the 
Saviour. The most searching inquiries led 
me to feel that he had experienced a grea.t 
and a joyful change in his spiritual affec- 
tions. But I wished to deal with him faith- 
fully, and pointed out the danger of being 
influenced by fear, to indulge a false hope, 
as it often happens, in view of approaching 
death. 

I know it, he said, but fear did not influ- 
ence me ; I had no fear. But, said he, rais- 
ing both his hands toward heaven, as he lay 
"upon his bed, ^Svhen I thought of the love 
of Grod, who gave his own Son to die upon 
the cross, for such a poor, miserable sinner 
as I am, it broke my heart. How could I 
help loving such a Grod?" And, while the 
tears streamed down his cheeks, he said, 



160 LIGHT IN A DARK ALLEY. 

^^ how wonderfal has been Grod's love and 
mercy to me, the chief of sinners T' 

One thing seemed to trouble him ; it was 
the neglect with which he had treated the 
sanctuary. He longed to be able to go 
there, to profess before the world the Sa- 
viour he had found. ^' I wish you to say to 
my companions and friends," said he, ^Hhat 
I die trusting in Jesus Christ alone, and 
have no hope of salvation but through his 
atoning blood." This was several weeks be- 
fore he died, and when his mind was clear 
and his understanding sound, as it continued 
to be while Hfe lasted. He maintained the 
same peaceful and happy frame, perfectly 
resigned to the will of God, till his spirit 
took its departure. Blessed Gospel, which 
thus brings to the bed of the dying the joy- 
ful hope of religion ! most worthy is it of all 
acceptation. 

This example shows in what profound 
ignorance of his own natural character a 
man may live all his days, and never sus- 
pect that in consequence of his neglect ot 
the Gospel, he is in danger of being lost. 



TRUTH ILLUSTRATED. 161 

Sucli an one feels no consciousness of dan- 
ger, but ever keeps before his mind a vain 
and illusive hope that all will be well with 
him at last. Not that this hope has any 
scriptural foundation, for it springs only 
from self-love; and he is so destitute of 
knowledge as to his own need of salvation, 
and of the plan of mercy revealed in the 
Gospel, as to pass on in life without giving 
himself any concern as to its termination. 

Thousands live thus, indulging this self- 
confident hope, and destitute of a knowledge 
of their danger. They neglect religion, 
because they have no relish for its duties, 
and feel not its need. The discovery may 
never, in this world, be made, that the 
course which they pursue is fatal to their 
eternal happiness. But the time will come, 
when conviction will flash on their minds, 
and then, perhaps, it will be too late to 
remedy their fatal error. Hence the earnest- 
ness with which the Gospel addresses every 
man, saying, ^^Now is the accepted time, 
behold now is the day of salvation." This 
appeal is addressed to you. Will you not 
14^ 



162 LIGHT IN A DARK ALLEY. 

give heed to it ? Will you not earnestly 
seek God, and give no rest to your endeav- 
ors till you feel in your soul the assurance 
of his mercy, the joys of pardoned sin? 

You remember the incident related of the 
old man who trusted in error, and died 
comfortless. ^'I fear," said he, ^^I know 
not what. I fear lest, after all, I may be 
mistaken." What a dreadful position this 
for one at the close of life ! to stand, as it 
were, upon the threshold of eternity, trem- 
bling lest his hope should not prove well- 
founded ! How different his state of mind 
from that of the true Christian ! 

Often have I stood by the death-bed of 
those who loved the Saviour, and heard from 
their lips the language of humble faith ; ex- 
pressions more confiding and joyful, as awa- 
kened by a view of Christ, than any to 
which the ears of man ever listened. An 
instance of this kind now rises in remem- 
brance; it is the case of an aged pilgrim 
about to die, who felt that he was going 
home. Long had he struggled with the 
temptations and trials of the world, and his 
race was almost run. 



TRUTH ILLUSTRATED. 163 

I said to him, My friend, on what do you 
ground your hope of happiness hereafter? 

On Christ, my precious Saviour, who died 
for me, was his reply. 

But may you not be deceived, I asked, 
and trust only in a delusion ? 

So far as the ability and willingness of 
Christ to save me are concerned, he said, I 
cannot be deceived ; for it is written in his 
word, that *4t is a faithful saying, and wor- 
thy of all acceptation, that Jesus Chrisi 
came into the world to save sinners." And 
I am the chief of sinners; but "the blood 
of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." ^' I 
know in whom I have believed, and am 
persuaded that he can keep that which I 
have committed unto him against that day." 

Does the thought, said I, afford you 
comfort ? 

Yes, he replied; what comfort can be 
greater to a poor sinner, like myself, about 
to die, than to feel that Christ is with me, 
and that when I depart hence, it will be 
into his presence in glory ? 0, he is a pre- 
cious Saviour. " Lord Jesus, into thy hands 



164 LIGHT IN A DAEK ALLEY. 

I commit my spirit." And the old man 
departed to his long home, triumphing in 
the mercy of God as manifested toward him 
through Jesus Christ. Happy man ! glori- 
ous, everlasting rest ! blessed portion of all 
who, through the Gospel, are recovered from 
sin and its dreadful miseries, and made eter- 
nally happy with God in his celestial man- 
sions ! 



THE OFFERED FRIENDSHIP OF CHRIST, THE INFLUENTIAL 
MOTIVE TO INSPIRE A RETURN TO GOD. 

We are smitten with wonder to behold 
the heavens opened and the Son of God lay- 
ing aside his crown and descending to earth, 
to perform those oflSces of humanity and 
kindness for man, which are scorned by the 
proud and unfeeling of our race. The object 
of his mission was to save. ^^I am come,'' 
he says, *'to seek and to save them that are 
lost." None are so vile that they may not 
come to him ; none so despairing that they 
may not hope, through his grace, for accept- 
ance. ^^Him that cometh unto me," he 
says, *'I will in no wise cast out." ^'Come 
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy la- 
den, and I will give you rest." 

Having given his own life for sinners, he 
freely offers mercy to all who will accept of 



166 LIGHT IN A DARK ALLEY. 

it on the terms which, he proposes. There 
is no distinction made in this respect be- 
tween a king and a beggar, the master and 
his slave. Christ is as willing to save the 
poor as he is the rich, the ignorant as the 
learned. They must all enter through the 
same door, sit at the same table, be clad in 
the same robes of righteousness, and be in- 
debted for pardon to the same sovereign 
grace. 

The plan of mercy by. which he saves is 
not by lowering down the standard of moral 
excellence to include the guilty children of 
the apostasy while in their sins, but by rais- 
ing them up from their degradation to the 
character which they should possess, and 
from which they have fallen, and conferring 
upon them the privileges of the children of 
God. This is mercy, indeed ! and it is the 
manifestation, on his part, of such exalted 
compassion, such kind regard for the chil- 
dren of misfortune and crime, which wins 
their hearts. 

It is a lesson of practical wisdom which 
we are slow to learn, that much of what 



THE RECLAIMING MOTIVES. 167 

passes for friendsliip, in this world, is but 
mere pretence. Smiles are often assumed to 
conceal the real sentiments and professions 
made, which, on being tested, prove to be 
insincere. Mutual interest constitutes the 
bond of society, and is the tie of most of its 
apparent friendships. Few are those friends 
who stand the test of adversity, and fewer 
still are they who abide faithful when ad- 
versity is embittered by the loss of charac- 
ter. When this is gone, the last link which 
binds man to society is severed, and he is 
cast forth from its bosom as the dead are 
.cast into the darkness and forgetfiilness of 
the tomb. Who will restore the fallen to 
the embraces of friends, or interest himself 
in the happiness of the degraded and lost ? 
Who will take them by the hand, lead them 
back into the path of virtue, and administer 
to them the consolations which are adapted 
to confer peace on a penitent and broken 
heart ? Not one. 

But it is the object of Christ's mission to 
earth to save this class of men ; those who 
have sinned against God and their own 



168 LIGHT IN A DARK ALLEY. 

souls, and are morally degraded and un- 
clean. This characteristic of his mission is 
distinctly presented to view in all those tes^ 
timonies of his word which speak of the de- 
sign of his advent. His kindness and com- 
passion are beautifully delineated by the 
Prophet, when he says, ** A bruised reed 
will he not break, and smoking flax will he 
not quench." What is more frail than a 
bruised reed, which can hardly sustain itself, 
which trembles when loaded with the dew, 
and which the softest zephyr prostrates ; fit 
emblem of man ? Or what is more easily 
extinguished than the flame of a dying ta- 
per ? But we are told that Christ will so 
regard the humble who trust in him, as to 
extend to them every care, and every suita- 
ble encouragement which they require. He 
will support the aged and infirm, and gently 
take by the hand the little child, and lead it 
on the way, as a kind shepherd cares for the 
tender lambs. 

Nothing can exceed his kindness to the 
wretched and miserable of our race ; and his 
offered friendship is the great and influen- 



THE RECLAIMING MOTIVE. 169 

tial motive whicli the Gospel uses to reach, 
and change the heart of rebel man. It is 
the means by which the Holy Spirit reclaims 
and saves. The lost in sin beholds in Christ 
one who feels a deep interest in his welfare, 
and is desirous to restore him to happiness. 
And this truth, more than any other which 
the Bible contains, interests and affects his 
heart. The law may utter its thunders, 
Sinai may flash and groan under the display 
of Amighty power, threatening punishment 
to the wicked ; but it is the love of Christ 
beaming from the cross, which melts and 
subdues the heart. The threatened punish- 
ment may excite alarm, and waken a sense 
of danger, leading one to feel that he must 
escape the ruin which impends over him ; 
but it is mercy which attracts him, and love 
displayed in the death of Christ for so guilty 
a wretch as he, which breaks his heart, and 
causes the tears of penitence to flow down 
his cheeks. 

Here is the source of the reclaiming power 
of the Gospel. The view of Christ's won- 
derful love in dying for the sinner, is the 
15 



11 LIGHT i:S- A DARK ALLEY. 

means to awaken confidence in this Saviour, 
and inspire in him trust. *' Behold," says 
Jesus to the distrustful, ^'my hands and my 
side. See where the cruel nails tore my 
flesh, and the soldier's spear opened its pas- 
sage to my heart. I suffer these agonies for 
you, to make atonement for your sin, to save 
your guilty soul. And can you not confide 
in me ? Will you not believe in the sincer- 
ity of my offers to save you? Can you 
withhold from me your heart ?" Who can 
withstand such an appeal ? AVhat heart can 
remain obdurate in view of such love ? 

Every thing may seem to you dark in life. 
You may feel yourself poor, deserted, and 
friendless. You see that the world must soon 
fail you, and where to go for happiness you 
know not. Lift up your eyes, my friend, to 
the glorious Eedeemer, who proffers you his 
friendship on the most honorable and the 
kindest terms. All that he requires of you 
is, to turn to him in true repentance, and to 
accept him by faith as your Saviour. The 
most exalted and glorious being in the uni- 
verse offers to become your friend ; to raise 



THE KECL AIMING- MOTIVE. l7l 

you out of tlie gloom and despondency wliicli 
sin occasions, to set before you a noble object 
for which to live, and make you eternally 
happy in its pursuit. And will you treat his 
mercy with neglect? Will you scorn his 
love? Knowing his true excellence, and 
what he has done and suffered for your sal- 
vation, can you continue to treat him as you 
have hitherto done, and to turn away from 
him, contemning his Gospel ? 

Do not act so unwisely, so wickedly. Do 
not place yourself in such a posture of in- 
gratitude and rebellion, as will lead all who 
love Grod, in the great day of Judgment, to 
feel, that in the sentence *^ Depart from me," 
you receive only your just desert ; and that 
the Lord of heaven could not be holy, and 
just, and good, and yet not inflict upon you 
the dreadful punishment of those who will 
not come unto him that they may have life. 



€\n^ttx ianxttt\\t\, 

THE URGENCY OF THE GOSPEL CALL. 

I DISCOVER around me multitudes of men 
living in the neglect of religion, and unwil- 
ling to come to its light. Busied with the 
■world, deluded by error, and ignorant that 
they are, in heart, opposed to God, they 
successively disappear from the stage of life, 
and often very unexpectedly. In view of 
this, the thought suggests itself, whether you 
have ever understood your true position un- 
der the divine government, or the nature of 
that Grospel given to reclaim and save you. 

You may think that you ought not to be 
included with the wicked in their condem- 
nation, because of your many ' estimable 
qualities. Paul, before he was converted, 
thought the same of himself. ^^I was alive," 
he said, " without the law once." No man 



THE GOSPEL CALL URGENT. l73 

can ever hope to be more moral than he 
was, or more religious, after his way; no 
man ever preserved a more unblemished 
deportment, or stood a fairer chance of ac- 
ceptance with God on account of his own 
righteousness. ^^But when the command- 
ment came," he said, *^sin revived and I 
died." When he came to perceive the mo- 
tives by which he had been governed, 
through the application of the law in its 
spirituality and power to his heart, he re- 
linquished all hope of heaven. He felt the 
agonies of conviction. He saw that he had 
offended a holy Grod, and had exposed him- 
self to his infinite displeasure. Then he 
cried to him for mercy, penitently turned 
from all his transgressions, and trusted for 
the remission of his sin in the Saviour whom 
he had despised. 

You may have accustomed yourself to 
indulge false views of your own character ; 
but of what avail will it be thus to delude 
yourself, and to build up a hope on the sand, 
which the storm will sweep away ? Conscious 
of your unfitness to meet Grod, and to be 
15^ 



Il4: LIGHT IN A DAEK ALLEY. 

happy with him in heaven, you cannot but 
perceive that without a different state of 
heart from what you now possess, you can 
never behold his face in peace. Be not de- 
ceived on this point. You must feel differ- 
ently ; your affection must be changed, and 
you must love Grod, or you cannot find in 
him your happiness. 

You may strive to forget the peril of your 
position ; but, as alienated from him in your 
affections, you are lost. All the righteous- 
ness of the church on earth, all the good 
works ever performed by those who have 
lived and died in its bosom, if they could 
be transferred to your account, could not 
save you ; much less can any righteousness 
to which you can lay claim, or of which 
you may fancy yourself to be possessed. Do 
not here deceive yourself. Error, however 
sincerely believed, will not help you. The 
universalist, free-thinker, moralist, fatalist, 
and nothingist, have nothing in their several 
creeds to meet the necessities of your case, 
and to deliver you from your danger. They 
may hide from your view the precipice be- 



THE GOSPEL CALL URGENT. 175 

fore you, but tliey cannot prevent your 
fall. 

It is your heart, your heart which, is in 
error. Your heart is turned away from God. 
It is deceitful above all things and desper- 
ately wicked, and you know it not. It is 
not that it is sincere, and your actions only 
wrong, but your heart and life are both in 
error. The governing motive of all your 
conduct is wrong. You love yourself su- 
premely, and not God. You are trusting in 
fatal errors which a faithful study of the 
Bible might easily correct. The obscurity 
which rests upon your mind as to the plan 
of mercy revealed in the Gospel, is self-cre- 
ated. It will vanish before the beams of 
that glory which shall shine in the face of 
Jesus Christ, when he shall come to judge 
the world. But it will then be too late to 
remedy your fatal course. Better is it now 
to come to the light, that you may be guided 
by it to the everlasting rest. 

Never can you be happy with God in 
heaven without a heart to love him. Never 
can vou enter the celestial mansion where 



116 LIGHT IN A DARK ALLEY. 

he dwells. Where have gone the multitudes 
who have lived and died without repent- 
ance? Where, the myriads who have been 
deluded through fatal error ? Can the man 
who neglects religion, and lives to the world 
only, enter heaven at death? It is impos- 
sible. We might as readily beheve that 
Jehovah could forsake his throne. 

Be assured that the Gospel is no human 
device. It is no inert and useless revela- 
tion. It has been given for a wise and good 
end. It is designed to recover to God the 
alienated affections of the heart. You know 
whether it has produced this effect on you. 
If it have not, there is a reason for it, and 
that reason is discoverable in yourself. It 
is because you have never come to the light, 
nor accepted and rested by faith on Jesus 
Christ. And you have never come to the 
Saviour because you have never felt your 
spiritual need of him. You have neglected 
the G-ospel because you have been in the 
dark as to your moral ruin, and your need 
of it. Never will you benefit or save your- 
self, by refusing to come to the light. Neg- 



THE GOSPEL CALL URGENT. Ill 

lect will only harden you the more. Error 
will complete the work of your ruin. But 
if you come to Jesus Christ in the way 
pointed out in the Gospel, all your igno- 
rance will vanish, your darkness will be dis- 
pelled, and you will find Christ to be just 
such a Saviour as you need. 

Is it not due to yourself thus to provide 
for your own happiness ? Is it not due to 
Christ that you should treat him according 
to his true worth, and receive with grati- 
tude the mercy which he proffers ? Motives 
of infinite weight press you no longer to de- 
lay. How vast those motives are, and how 
far-reaching and influential, eternity only 
can disclose. 

Turn not away from this kind endeavor 
to win you to Christ. What other motive 
could have prompted it but a desire for 
your happiness ? Visions of worldly pleas- 
ure may dance before you, but happy you 
can never be, while destitute of the friend- 
ship and love of Christ. You are in his 
world, and under his wise and holy govern- 
ment ; and you must be happy with him as 



178 LIGHT IN A DARK ALLEY. 

a sinner redeemed and saved by his grace, 
or be excluded from his presence forever as 
a neglecter of the Gospel. You are to choose 
for yourself which of these results shall be 
your joyful or bitter portion. On you rests 
the responsibility. 

Eeader, I leave you here, and implore the 
Father of Mercies to enlighten, impress, and 
guide you, so that you may escape from sin's 
destructive path, into the way that leadeth 
unto life, and may attain, through Jesus 
Christ, everlasting felicity and glory. Blessed 
are all they whom the Gospel thus reclaims 
from their wandering, and restores to holi- 
ness and bliss ! 



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